Uttar Pradesh Governor Anandiben Patel on Thursday said women should aim to become “expert mothers” before aspiring to become IAS officers or teachers, as she stressed family values, parental responsibility and character-building at a university convocation in Kanpur. Patel said professional success should not come at the cost of family responsibilities and urged young women to continue their education and careers after marriage while contributing to their families and society.
Addressing students, parents and faculty at the 41st convocation of Chhatrapati Shahu Ji Maharaj University, Patel, who is also the Chancellor of state universities, also asked parents to remain involved in their children’s lives after admission to schools and colleges. She spoke about moral values, concern over drug abuse around hostels, and the need for education to go beyond academic success.
“Whether you become an IAS officer or a teacher, first become an expert mother. Everyone should know how to cook the food prepared at home,” she said. Patel said daughters should not discontinue their education after marriage and should use their knowledge and skills for nation-building.
She also told parents not to treat their responsibility as over once their children enter educational institutions. “Parents should know what their children are doing after they enter educational institutions. Even a small lapse in supervision can adversely affect their future,” she said.
Expressing concern over drug abuse around university hostels, Patel said a monitoring team set up by the Jan Bhavan, formerly Raj Bhavan, had found instances where narcotics were allegedly being supplied through food delivery containers. She said the network was immediately dismantled through administrative intervention.
Linking rising incidents of domestic violence and crimes against women with declining moral values, the governor said education should not be limited to degrees and marks. “If degrees are increasing but society continues to witness such crimes, it reflects the true state of our education. Moral values are as important as academic knowledge,” she said.
Degrees were conferred on 1,07,713 students at the convocation, with women winning nearly 82 per cent of the medals. Priya Yadav, a BSc Agriculture graduate, received the Chancellor’s Gold Medal along with four other medals for securing the highest marks in the university.
Her remarks are the latest in a series of speeches in recent days centred on women, girls and families. On July 8, at a mother-daughter conference at Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti Language University in Lucknow after its convocation, she stressed the need for greater awareness about women’s health, nutrition, anaemia, menstruation, menopause, pregnancy and maternal health.
She directed universities to ensure regular health check-ups for girl students, install BMI testing facilities, promote scientific awareness on women’s health and introduce courses on ‘garbh sanskar’ to educate students about maternal nutrition, foetal development and healthy pregnancies. The governor also called for campaigns against child marriage and discrimination between sons and daughters.
A day earlier, at the 24th convocation of Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Technical University in Lucknow, Patel had advised students to become self-reliant before marriage, saying, “If you like someone, first become self-reliant, then get married.” Clarifying that she was not opposed to love marriages, she also urged young people to take informed decisions and called for improving teaching standards in government engineering colleges.
At the Kanpur convocation, Patel combined her message on education, family responsibility, safety and social values while the university awarded degrees to more than one lakh students and rolled out digital certification for graduates.
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Published By:
India Today Web Desk
Published On:
Jul 9, 2026 23:42 IST
