LEH: On International Women’s Day, Founder President Bhikkhu Sanghasena stated, in the next millennium, women will play an increasingly important role in the development of a society.
It is necessary for us to prepare them for that role by giving them equal opportunities to participate in every field of human endeavours, he said.
Ever since the inception of the organization, MIMC under the vibrant leadership of its Founder President Bhikkhu Sanghasena, has been striving hard to work for the dignity and upliftment of the status of women, nuns and girls in the society.
He strongly believed that education for girls is the only means to promote gender equality in an otherwise male-dominated society and therefore, he began his exemplary journey of women empowerment in the year 1992, by establishing a Mahabodhi Residential School for the girl’s child to provide the much-needed education and skills.
Bhikkhu Sanghasena for the first time in the history of Buddhist nuns in Ladakh helped some Ladakhi nuns to receive Full Bhikkhuni ordination.
The first International Buddhist Women Conference was also hosted at Mahabodhi with the aim to combine both secular and religious education to the girls and nuns in the Himalayan region.
In yet another pioneering initiative taken by Bhikkhu Sanghasena, the Mahabodhi Adult Women Literacy Project was spreaded wherein more than 300 adult women received basic literacy and skill development training in their villages.
This was not all, a Home for the aged and handicap was established in the MIMC campus in the year 1995 to provide a respectable environment for aged and old elderly women to live with love, affection, dignity and care at this fragile stage of their lives.
Bhikkhu Sanghasena always said, in the next millennium, women will play an increasingly important role in the development of a society. It is necessary for us to prepare them for that role by giving them equal opportunities to participate in every field of human endeavours.
At the same time, however, women must not see the bringing up of a family as disregarding. The traditional role of a mother, a caring and loving person must never be abandoned. What we need to do today is to establish a balance between the two genders and refrain from the tendency to see them in confrontation with each other.
Chunzin Angmo who was raised in the Mahabodhi Visually Impaired Hostel is one of the great examples of Bhikkhu Sanghasena’s contribution toward gender equality.
