Dec 08 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)
Finally, AMU library opens for women
Eram Agha
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Aligarh:
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It was in the 1960s that undergraduates of Abdullah Women's College were told they could no longer enter AMU's hallowed Maulana Azad Library . After decades of demand, denial and heartburn, women students walked into the library once again on Sunday , in what many said was one of the university's most landmark events.The first bus left the women's college with eight girls at 8.30am, but more joined later.Inside the library , many just looked around in awe, soaking in the feeling, still coming to terms with the new reality .Others exchanged high-fives and picked up the books they had always wanted to. “It's a historic day for the women students of AMU and the university itself,“ one of them said. The controversy that erupted on November 10, when VC Zameeruddin Shah said allowing girls into the library would lead to “four times more boys“ crowding the “packed“ facility , was finally set at rest. “ Any idea which is new takes time to fructify,“ Shah said on Sunday . Any idea which is new takes time to fructify AMU vice-chancellor Zameeruddin Shah told TOI ,“ on Sunday as undergraduates of the Abdullah Women's College entered the central library of the 94-year-old institution for the first time since the 1960s. “From next Sunday , the numbers will increase.The girls should know this opportunity has come to them with great difficulty and they should make full use of it.Soon there will be bookstores and stationery shops around Maulana Azad Library too.“
On November 12, the VC had submitted before the Allahabad high court that all students, including girls, have been allowed access to the library from the current session itself. He had also clarified that undergraduate girl students of the university's Abdullah Women's College can also become members of the library. About a month later, some of them woke up earlier than usual to ensure they reached the library on time.Since it was their first time at the facility, some of them did not know that bags were not allowed inside. The group of eight that arrived in the first bus was frisked before they deposited their bags at the counter, grabbed their tokens and stepped in.
Shabnam Pervez, who studies zoology , had failed to find books on embryology in Aligarh bookstores. “Our library falls short in catering to our demands. So the access to the Maulana Azad Library is a big relief,“ she said. “My teachers have always told us about certain writers, today I am going to look up for them.“
Sana Parveen, a physiology student, was equally upbeat. “I want my project on cardiovascular diseases among the elderly to be different from others. My work should have the information from the best books of physiology ,“ she said.
Many students had consulted their teachers on the books they would borrow. “To borrow a book available in our own library would be wasting the Sunday . So I made sure I did not borrow a book that is already available at our own college,“ said Gulfisha Nasreen, a home science student.
Every Women's College students' union listed gaining access to the library as a poll promise, but it were the current leaders, led by Gulfiza Khan, the president, Noorain Batool, the vice-president, and Afra Khanum, the secretary , who finally got the job done.
On November 12, the VC had submitted before the Allahabad high court that all students, including girls, have been allowed access to the library from the current session itself. He had also clarified that undergraduate girl students of the university's Abdullah Women's College can also become members of the library. About a month later, some of them woke up earlier than usual to ensure they reached the library on time.Since it was their first time at the facility, some of them did not know that bags were not allowed inside. The group of eight that arrived in the first bus was frisked before they deposited their bags at the counter, grabbed their tokens and stepped in.
Shabnam Pervez, who studies zoology , had failed to find books on embryology in Aligarh bookstores. “Our library falls short in catering to our demands. So the access to the Maulana Azad Library is a big relief,“ she said. “My teachers have always told us about certain writers, today I am going to look up for them.“
Sana Parveen, a physiology student, was equally upbeat. “I want my project on cardiovascular diseases among the elderly to be different from others. My work should have the information from the best books of physiology ,“ she said.
Many students had consulted their teachers on the books they would borrow. “To borrow a book available in our own library would be wasting the Sunday . So I made sure I did not borrow a book that is already available at our own college,“ said Gulfisha Nasreen, a home science student.
Every Women's College students' union listed gaining access to the library as a poll promise, but it were the current leaders, led by Gulfiza Khan, the president, Noorain Batool, the vice-president, and Afra Khanum, the secretary , who finally got the job done.
