MoU signed to set up women development centre at GCU

LAHORE: A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed here on Thursday to establish a women development centre at Government College University (GCU) Lahore to raise awareness among women and facilitate them for career development, entrepreneurship, online education and leadership.

The centre would be established in the current year with a one-time grant from Women Development Department (WDD), Punjab. GCU Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Asghar Zaidi and WDD Punjab Secretary Ms Ambreen Raza signed the 10-point accord at a ceremony at the university's Faiz Seminar Hall. Punjab Minister for Women Development Ashifa Riaz Fatyana was also present.

Earlier, the minister also inaugurated the university’s upgraded daycare centre where WDD is providing equipment, trained staff and other facilities costing around Rs4million. Speaking on the occasion, Mrs Fatyana said every year, thousands of talented and qualified women left their professional careers due to lack of better daycare facilities in their departments where they could leave children with trust. The minister said they were also going to set up new daycare centres for the children of faculty and staff at Lahore College for Women University and Home Economics University. The minister said GCU had a vice-chancellor who was not no gender bias.

The GCU VC said daycare was a specialised job, and children would not be left with untrained staff. He said that GCU-WDC would empower women besides providing career guidance and counselling services to them. He also highlighted the need to raise awareness among men about the rights of women. A large number of female faculty members were also present on the occasion.