AMU Students welcome 2015 with a wish for national unity and concern for poor

ALIGARH: A group of Aligarh Muslim University students from different departments of studies distributed warm cloths to poor and needy at the University gate, Bab-e-Syed as part of their initiative to greet people on New Year in a novel way.

These students carried banners and placards conveying messages pertaining to national unity and integrity, open mindedness, peaceful coexistence and tolerance.
On this occasion, Mumtaz Ahmad Numani, a research scholar in the Department of History, said, “We decided to bid adieu to the 2014 and welcome the 2015 with a strong message of national unity, brotherhood and humanitarian concern for the downtrodden like rickshaw pullers. New Year is usually celebrated with fun and frolic but we wanted to mark the New Year eve with compassion and solidarity with marginalized section of society.”
Shah Alam, a research scholar at the Centre for Women’s Studies, said that academic institutions also had a responsibility towards the underprivileged section. He added, “Rickshaw pullers, hawkers and labourers are frequently seen in University campuses in India. Many of them are so poor that they cannot bear the brunt of winter season without aid and assistance from the affluent section of society. We urge students to give away extra woolen belongings to such people so that they may also feel the warmth of New Year celebrations”.
Another student, Amir Khan said that besides social concern, students’ effort was aimed at conveying a message to Indians that unity, in spite of diversity of all hues visible among students in Indian universities, should be the buzzword of the year 2015.