Dhaka, Bangladesh (CU)_ The Asian University for Women (AUW) is offering new scholarships to exceptional Indian women who are the first generation to attend college in their families. While any student from India or across the region or the globe can apply for admission at AUW, these scholarships are meant exclusively for the highly talented students from disadvantaged groups in the Indian states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, and Assam. Furthermore, over twenty students from Assam, Jharkhand, Kashmir, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Odisha are now enrolled at AUW.
Through His Excellency the High Commissioner of India in Bangladesh, a message regarding this has already been sent to the Chief Secretaries of each of these states. The university gives priority to members of the Dalit and other ethnic or religious minority populations and those who have been treated unfairly by the Indian states or the larger community. AUW recruits students with strong academic talent and an unwavering dedication to leadership and social change, as seen by courage, anger at injustice, and empathy.
Since its inception in 2008, AUW has awarded nearly 150 fully-funded scholarships to Indian students, including room and board, tuition, travel, books and supplies, and medical care. This year, a graduate named Savitri Kumari topped the list in the Jharkhand Civil Service Exams. The Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh, His Excellency High Commissioner Vikram Doraiswami, has toured the AUW campus in Chittagong on many occasions. In an effort to motivate more Indian students to benefit from the great educational opportunities at AUW, he stated, “The Asian University for Women is a unique and pioneering project that is as outstanding as it is inspiring. It is developed on the simple but effective concept of giving every deserving young woman a chance to break out of both the age-old shackles of patriarchy and social constraints as well as the restrictions of cost and access that are the limitations of our modern age”.
He added, “I have had the good fortune to see the transformative impact that this university has exercised upon so many brilliant and committed young women, in a brief period of around a decade, and I have no hesitation in saying that this is a project that deserves our fullest attention and support. For us in India, the project delivers on the very goals that our government has itself adopted, of “beti bachao, beti padhao”–save a girl, educate a girl–that has been instrumental in sparking a remarkable evolution in our approach to empowerment of women”. He said, “I have no hesitation in inviting attention and consideration for this university, its faculty, and above all, its remarkable group of resilient and committed young women, who deserve the best that life can offer them”.
According to AUW Vice Chancellor, Dr. Rubana Huq, “AUW seeks to facilitate, expand and promote educational opportunities for women in Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, and Assam. We hope that the outreach assistance from the Indian government will lead to recruitment of talented women who will later serve their communities with excellence and passion”. While announcing these scholarships, AUW’s founder Kamal Ahmad said, “AUW’s vision is to create a society that is not separated by religion, caste or creed. We deplore political pogroms against the weakest of our societies and call upon all civilized elements in society to oppose such degradation of values so valiantly championed by Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, Suhrawardi and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and other leaders of integrity at the creation of our independence. By bringing young women of diverse backgrounds who have the courage to speak truth to power, AUW hopes to make its own small contribution in resisting the tyranny of prejudice and repression that is attempting to burn down our dreams of a different world. It is only logical that these efforts are rooted in Chittagong for it was the “Free State of Bengal” that resisted even at the time of Partition the forced divide of our nations on the basis of religion instead of recognizing our common humanity”.
