HPU’s Proposal to Reserve Seat for Only Girl Child Gets Approval

Shimla: Himachal Pradesh University’s (HPU) proposal to reserve one seat in each professional course in its 200 affiliated colleges has been approved by the university's executive council.

As the proposal has been approved by the executive council of the university, it now requires approval from the academic council at its meeting in February next year. If the proposal is approved by the academic council, the seat for a single girl child will be reserved in all professional courses except medicine and engineering in all 200 colleges under the University.

As per sources, the scheme had been introduced on the campus for postgraduate courses in June this year. Sunil Kumar Gupta, Vice Chancellor of the University has said that the proposal had been placed in front of the executive council on the suggestion of the student council secretary Shalini. He also added that as soon as the proposal receives a nod from the academic council, the scheme will be implemented for professional courses such as BBA, BCA and MCA at the college-level as well.

The proposal had been initiated as a novel way of fighting against female foeticide. It has been put forward by the secretary of the student council at the University. Moreover, the state of Himachal Pradesh, in recent years, has achieved much in the field of literacy and is now almost at par with the state of Kerala.

Even though the sex ratio in the state of Himachal Pradesh is better than that of other neighboring states, the implementation of the scheme at HPU would be beneficial for those who do not discriminate between a girl and a boy and have a single girl child. As per sources, the percentage of literacy in the state is 76% according to the 2001 Census and may reach about 84% in the 2011 Census. It is also being anticipated that the literacy level in the state may touch 90% within two years, which would place it on a similar position as Kerala.