A bust of founding principal of Ranchi Women’s College Prof Bhanumathy Prasad dedicated

Ranchi: A bust of Prof Bhanumathy Prasad, the Founding Principal of Ranchi Women’s College was dedicated to the students by the Principal, Dr Supriya, Prof Meena Sahay of the Ranchi Women’s College Alumni Association, and Roshan Prasad, the grandson of Prof Prasad. The Chief Guest of the event was Dr. Ajit Kumar Sinha, the Vice Chancellor of Ranchi University. Also present was S. H. Nathan, the President of the Jharkhand Malayali Association.

The bust weighs around 100 kilograms and is made of bronze. It was built by world renowed sculptor, Dipankar Karmakar.

Ranchi Womens College was established on 18 July 1949 by a group of visionary philanthropists. The Founding Principal, Prof Bhanumathy Prasad was born in Adoor, Kerala in 1922 into a family of poor school teachers. At the age of 16, she left Kerala to do her B.A. from Baneras Hindu University. She graduted from there at the age of 21 with an M.A.  degree.

Prof Prasad and her husband, Advocate Suresh Prasad (also a graduate of Banares Hindu University) had a dream of championing women’s education in South Bihar. They decided that there was no better way than to establish an all women’s college in Ranchi.

The couple went from house to house requesting people to send their daughters – to study for free! Even though the couple were extremely poor themselves, they made a decision to impart free education to girls. They knew that asking parents to spend money on the education of their daughers would be a detterent. The first classes were taught by Prof Bhanumathy Prasad and Advocate Suresh Prasad under a tree.

Soon the efforts of the couple were noticed by K.B. Sahay, the Chief Minister of Bihar; M.S. Rao, the Commissioner of Chotanagpur;  A.V. Davis of the Davis Institute of Psychiatry; Mr Hemen Ganguly, a prominent businessman; S.N. Ganguly, also a businessman; and S.K. Bage.

And so began the illustrious story of Ranchi Women’s College seventy five years ago –  with three teachers and 11 students. In these seventy five years, the College has produced leaders who have excelled in every walk of life, and brought credit to Chotanagpur.