The Higher Education Review

Situated in the tribal district Palghar, the Comrade Godavari Shamrao Parulekar College of Arts, Commerce and Science, Talasari is established for the bright future of the Adivasi community in this area. An exclusive initiative by the Adivasi Pragati Mandal the present college is incepted with a notion of reaching the highest summit of success across the educational field. Since the pre-independence era, the Palghar district has been majorly inhabited by the tribal community.

Deprived of any social advantages, the tribal community of this area was highly mistreated by the landlords as well as Portugal. For the development of the tribal community Comrade Godutai Parulekar and Comrade Shamrao Parulekar launched ‘Kisan Sabha’ and struggled to provide rights & freedom to the tribal community. Considering the need for appropriate educational development of the tribal community, then-President Comrade L. S. Kom formed Ädivasi Pragati Mandal and started Comrade Godavari Shamrao Parulekar College of Arts, Commerce & Science in Talasari in 1994.

An Impeccable Educational Institution
Initially, the college had only Arts department with a handful of faculties and only a few tribal students were enrolled. But with the keen efforts, soon the Commerce division was introduced in 2010 & subsequently Science department was also introduced in 2011. Taking a step forward to Master’s degree, M. Com. (Advanced Accountancy & Auditing) & M. A. (History) courses were introduced in the year 2014. As a great achievement, this was the first generation of tribal community that was acquainted with Higher educational degree. For the specialization across this domain the subjects like Economics, Psychology, History, Political Science, English & Marathi Language & Literature, Accountancy & Auditing, Management, Marketing, Chemistry, Mathematics, Botany

incorporated. Now approximately 1500 students are educated every year.

“We are planning to introduce P.G. Courses in Science stream such as M. Sc. and Professional Courses. For working professionals, Housewives and college dropouts, who are unable to attain regular college are offered distance education through YCMOU via our institution. Under this scheme B. A., B. Com., B. Lib., M. Lib., M. A. (English), Mass Media, MBA (Finance) and many more courses are offered and every year more than 1500 students are benefited,” says Dr. Bhagwan Abhimansingh Rajput, Principal, Comrade Godavari Shamrao and many more, were Parulekar College of Arts, Commerce and Science.

Keeping in mind the present scenario to enhance student’s skills, the college has collabo-rated with the Tata Institute of Social Science Mumbai. It also provides National University Students Skills Development (NUSSD) programs, comprising of courses such as Financial Literacy, Legal Literacy, Digital Literacy, Leadership Entrepreneurship, Motivational Skill Development & Communication Skill Development in English and so on. “In our college, we have well qualified and experienced staffs as per UGC norms.

“Even though situated in rural and tribal area, Comrade Godavari Shamrao Parulekar College of Arts, Commerce and Science provides best amenities to its students”

All teaching staff are NET/SET qualified and most of them have either completed or perusing Ph. D. Number of books have been published by teaching staff on various subjects. NSS Unit of the college has got Best Program Officer and Best NSS Unit Award on District and University level. The college has also been honored as ‘Best College Award’ in Rural areas by the University of Mumbai. Being ISO certified 9001: 2015. We have completed three cycles of NAAC reaccreditation on time with constant improvement in grade,” states Dr. Bhagwan Abhimansingh Rajput.

Equipped With Modern Infrastructural Facilities
Even though situated in rural and tribal areas, Comrade Godavari Shamrao Parulekar College of Arts, Commerce and Science provides the best amenities to its students. Along with a separate library building furnished with an Internet facility, it has plenty of books, reference books, e-books, magazines, Journals and

Newspaper, from where the students and staff access the books through library software SOUL 2.0 and N List. With well-equipped labs for science faculty, social sciences, language and literature, and computer lab, there is a separate science centre sponsored by Larsen & Turbo (L & T) Ltd.

This centre spread scientific temperaments among college students as well as other students nearby various schools and colleges. The college has developed and maintained Botanical Garden to create awareness of medicinal herbs to gain practical knowledge to the students. There is a separate well-furnished and equipped Auditorium Hall to conduct various programs. Considering the need for a digital platform and pandemic situation, the college provides ICT facilities to the students as well as teaching staff to apply various ICT tools and deliver curriculum and extra-curriculum activities effectively.

NSS unit of the college conducts various social activities such as ‘Swatch Bharat Abhiyan’, Anti Plastic Movements, Blood Donation and Health Check-up camps, Energy & Water Conservation, Environment awareness, Disaster management and so on. In this pandemic situation, the NSS unit has created awareness related to Covid – 19 through the various digital banners, distribution of sanitizers, masks & food packets to migrated labours & needy peoples and also created awareness of vaccination to the rural tribal people. “Our students are our brand ambassadors. They make a mark for themselves wherever they go and have an edge over the students from other colleges.

This has been possible due to the encouragement and relentless efforts of our teaching staff, who ensure all the aspects which are essential for the capacity building of the student and are incorporating curriculum beyond what is suggested by the university. With our college Placement Committee constantly working for on and off-campus placement of our students, most of our students are in government services and various reputed private organizations. In the newly raised Tribal Palghar district, ours is one of the colleges which efficiently provides lots of educational facilities to the tribal students at the University of Mumbai. We are aware of the various challenges in this area and plan to overcome them to serve the best educational facilities to the tribal students in the future,” concludes Dr. Bhagwan Abhimansingh Rajput.