Patna: A 12-year-old dream that once appeared to have been lost in the files of the Bihar govt has suddenly acquired a fresh lease of life.CM Samrat Choudhary’s announcement on Thursday to establish a dedicated women’s university in Bihar has revived a proposal first mooted by former CM Nitish Kumar in 2014. This time, however, the proposed institution promises to be more ambitious with women not only as students but also at the helm of its academic and administrative affairs.Launching the Samriddh Mahila-Samriddh Bihar campaign in Patna, Samrat said the proposed university would be “run entirely by women”, with women serving as professors, officers and other staff members, right up to the post of vice-chancellor.The announcement has brought back memories of Nitish’s declaration at the annual function of Patna Women’s College (PWC) in Jan 2014. He had promised to transform PWC, Bihar’s first women’s college, into the state’s first women’s university and asked the education department to work out the modalities. He had even suggested the then principal, Sister Doris D’Souza, could become its first vice-chancellor. But the proposal never took off.Nitish later broadened the vision, suggesting premier women’s colleges in Patna be brought under one umbrella to create a full-fledged women’s university. The proposal, however, ran into institutional complications, with Magadh Mahila College (MMC) pointing out it too had been demanding university status and should be part of the initiative.Academics now see Samrat’s announcement as an opportunity to finally turn the long-pending idea into reality. “The proposal is both desirable and overdue. But this time it must move beyond an announcement and acquire a concrete institutional shape,” said academics familiar with the issue.Women’s activist and Vanijya Mahavidyalaya principal Suheli Mehta, who had already raised the issue with the CM through a written representation, welcomed the announcement. She said Bihar needed a “genuine, full-fledged women’s university”, offering quality programmes in science, technology, medicine, engineering, management, law and humanities, backed by a strong research ecosystem.She said existing women’s colleges, including PWC and MMC, could provide the foundation, but merely granting them a new administrative status would not suffice. “It should have its own campus, laboratories, faculty, funding and academic autonomy,” she said.
