Associate Professor, St. Teresa’s College (estd. 1925), Kochi, Kerala
The central courtyard of the campus was filled with families carrying their limited belongings – a bundle of clothes, a pot used for cooking rice, a bucket with sundry groceries. One could see women and men, old and young with pain and uncertainty writ large on their faces. This was the scene at St. Teresa’s College on the day it opened its gates to the families affected by the floods in the city in August 2018. Latha Nair was at the forefront guiding her students to escort the survivors on the campus that was designated ‘relief camp’. Actions such as this that redefine the contours of ‘learning’ is something Latha has been doing for over three decades now. The work with flood victims was not a first; she earlier engaged her students with the Kudumbi cultivators to help build sanitation facilities for them. This was long before the Swachh Bharat Mission even started.
On-campus, Latha’s commitment to address the needs of the community has shaped the VENDA program against Substance Abuse. The program is designed to provide support to young persons in the college and vicinity areas and involves collaborations with local NGOs and hospitals.
Student support services at many colleges counsel students who are undergoing academic hardship or face challenges on the personal front. Latha Nair has been instrumental in raising the bar on Counselling Services offered by her institute. She has assisted many students come out of situations of violence and abuse – sexual, emotional and physical—perpetrated within the home and the community. She has facilitated their access to the justice system. To this end, she engages with local police authorities under the Janamaithri Community Police, offering training in gender-sensitive community policing.
Latha believes that education, social mobility and economic independenceare key to gender equity and addressing gender-based violence. She has helped institute the Navathy Scholarship for young women. Today, this program benefits 90 young women annually. Latha brings different worlds – health, NGO sector, rural communities, media, criminal justice system—together to enrich the learning experience of her students.
Latha Nair R is an Associate Professor at the Department of English and GUNN Centre for Research St. Teresa’s College, Kochi, affiliated to Mahatma Gandhi University. Dr. Nair has been appointed as the Director of the Gunn Centre in India, after she undertook a training program at the State Kansas University, USA.
She played a lead role in facilitating the autonomous status of St. Teresa’s College. She is also a member of the Governing Council of St. Teresa’s College, Member Board of Studies, Sree Sankaracharya University, Kalady. She is the Resource Person for the Staff Academic Training Colleges (UGC) of Bharatheeyar University and Calicut University.