The role of education and research in enhancing rural women's income and household happiness

When I received the invitation to deliver this lecture, I accepted it immediately because of the opportunity the occasion will provide to recall the message and meaning of J.P.’s life and work. J.P.’s interests were many and varied and picking one theme out of the many with which he was emotionally and intellectually connected, for treatment at this first lecture instituted in his memory became difficult. I finally chose the role of education and research in enhancing rural women’s income and thereby the happiness of economically poor households because this is a topic which J.P. and I had discussed on several occasions. Also, it is my conviction that only when women are enabled to participated in an equal measure with men in national development that effective remedies can be found for the major socio-economic maladies facing our country such as rapid population growth, under the mal-nutrition leading to a possible stunting of physical and mental development in children, under and unemployment and extensive eco-destruction.