SHILLONG: President of India, Ram Nath Kovind has urged the youths of the region to maintain and further strengthen their image as excellent sportspersons, artistes and professionals, and not become victims of habits or substances which are injurious to health.
Ram Nath Kovind who addressed the 26th convocation of the North Eastern Hill University here on Monday, also expressed his happiness at the fact that out of all medal awardees in the convocation, as many as 76 per cent are girls.
“In almost all the universities where I have attended convocations, I have observed that girls have been outshining boys. This reflects our society’s progress and points towards our bright future as a developed nation,” the president said.
Stating that there is a lot to learn from the traditional wisdom of the tribal of Meghalaya, Kovind added that the progressive society of Meghalaya gives primacy to women.
He said that the people of Meghalaya also teach the value of cleanliness as for several years, Mawlynnong has been regarded as the cleanest village in Asia.
“The Pristine waters of Dawki and Umngot rivers reflect not only beauty of nature but also the wisdom of Meghalaya’s people. Tribes of Meghalaya had developed the unique art of building root bridges. Roots and branches of fast-growing trees are shaped along both banks of rivers and valleys in such a way that they meet to form a bridge. This environment friendly inter-generational way of building a natural infrastructure is full of messages for entire humanity,” he added
The President further stated that the natural splendour of Meghalaya and the warmth of its people attracted Swami Vivekanand and Gurudev Ravindranath Tagore who frequently visited this land.
This land has given birth to great freedom fighters like U Tirot Sing, U Kiang Nongbah and Pa Togan Sangma who have been immortalized at the martyrs’ column in Shillong,” he said.
Remembering the former Lok Sabha Speaker, Late P.A. Sangma, he said that Sangma’s life-story is very inspiring as he showed extraordinary strength of character to scale great heights of achievement and asked young students to draw strength from his example.
Urging NEHU to continuously explore areas of relevant learning covering local to global issues, he said that efforts of the University for promoting employability and self-employment need utmost encouragement.
He also reiterated and called upon the stakeholders to focus on ‘University Social Responsibility’ or USR for which students of this university may spend time at some villages and also stay the night.
“They should help the villagers deal with their problems. They may make the villagers aware about the importance of sanitation, literacy, vaccination and nutrition of children. This exposure will not only help the villagers but also make the students more aware and sensitive to ground realities,” the President stated.
It may be mentioned that as many as 14502 candidates including 126 Ph. D, 41 M. Phil, 1342 post-graduates and 12983 graduates received their degrees during the convocation.
