Motto | ' Sanskrita Stree Parashakti ' (An enlightened women is a source of Infinite strength). |
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Type | Public |
Established | 1916 |
Chancellor | C. Vidyasagar Rao |
Vice-Chancellor | Prof. Shashikala Wanjari |
Students | Women Only |
Location | Mumbai, Maharashtra, India |
Campus | Mumbai, Pune |
Affiliations | UGC |
Website | http://sndt.ac.in/default.htm |
SNDT Women's University, also called by the full name Shreemati Nathibai Damodar Thackersey Women's University, is a women's university in the city of Mumbai, India. The university headquarters are situated at Churchgate in South Mumbai, while the main campus is in Santacruz–Juhu area of Mumbai. SNDT has three campuses: two in Mumbai and one in Pune. The University has affiliated colleges Maharashtra, Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Surat and Goa, as well.
The year 1896 marked the beginning of a new era in the history of women’s education in India when Dhondo Keshav Karve established an ashram for widows and helpless women at Hingne near Pune. He realized that to make these women self-sufficient, -reliant and -confident, schooling was essential at the ashram. Karve launched a programme of schooling there, which latter became a regular school for girls and women. In a society governed by age-old customs and conservative attitudes towards women, an institution of this type was bound to face social and economic difficulties. He had a dream of establishing a women’s university. His friends sent him a booklet on the Japan Women's University in Tokyo. In December 1915 Karve, in his presidential address to the National Social Reform Congress in Bombay, announced his decision to shape his dream into reality. On 2 July 1916 the first college started with the enrollment of five students; it gradually took shape as a women’s university. Karve did not wait for the government permission for funds.
In 1920 the university was named Shreemati Nathibai Damodar Thackersey Women’s University.
In 1936, the headquarters was shifted to Bombay. The university continued to grow, providing higher education to more and more women. In 1951, the university was granted statutory recognition and was renamed as Shrimati Nathibai Thackersey Women’s University now popularly known as SNDT Women’s University. The recognition came along with rare privilege of having a jurisdiction across the country.