Closure of courses to hit girls from marginalised sections

Country’s first women’s polytechnic has churned out thousands of professionals

Success or failure of the month-long agitation by students and alumni of the Kamala Nehru Polytechnic College for Women against the closure of certain courses could determine the fate of the aspirations of countless girl students from poor and marginalised backgrounds across the State. It could also determine the future character of the grand old institution set up in 1961 as India’s first women’s polytechnic, and Asia’s third. The institution that has churned out thousands of skilled women professionals over the last 60 years is gasping for lack of government aid, due to which the Exhibition Society running it has decided to convert the courses into self-finance.