History of Dev Samaj College for Women

DSCW has been the sovereign shrine of women’s emancipation. Its history is like a sacred pilgrimage to the past. It is simply not the bricks and stones laid in to form a functional structural unit, rather each of its bricks has bathed in the sweat and blood of the myriad reformers like Founder Principal P.V. Kanal Ji, Ex. Principal Dharamvir Ji and present chairman Shriman Nirmal Singh Dhillon, Secretary, Dev Samaj These eminent scholars have, in countless ways contributed their part of self and soul to infuse life into this living temple of education. The very atmosphere of the college breathes out the spirit of their sacrifice, devotion, and value-based education. 

DSCW is an institution that was started as a result of the renaissance that India witnessed towards the end of the 19th century. A glimpse at its glorious past takes us more than eighty-six years back. Those were the times when degeneration had become the plague of society. During British rule, the country was still reeling under the burden of an orthodox and retrogressive society.

 
 
 
 
 
 
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Women were the soft targets of infinite atrocities of the wheedling ritualistic societies which gave way to contrived conventions like Sati Pratha, Child Marriages, Purdah System, etc. Education for women was totally taboo. The emancipated and educated women fully vanished away under the shroud of pseudo-social values and baseless norms. 

The zealous missionary, Bhagwan Dev Atma, the Founder of Dev Samaj, who was an eminent visionary and one of the Architects of the Modern Indian Educational System that combines tradition with the modernity, became a pioneer of the Dev Samaj movement and brought about a mutation in the predicament of the conservative society and strove to lend women their dignity, respect, and status. A great idealist and a reformer, Bhagwan Dev Atma verily believed that the education of women alone could cure the malaise of the sick society and help in building a utopian state. He took up the cause of the hapless and illiterate women relegated mercilessly to the confines of their low self-esteem and societal pressures. He toiled hard to bestir the steadfast society into educating women, making them self-reliant and independent. To achieve this end, he established the first exclusive institutions for girls in Lahore in 1886 and at Ferozepur in 1901. In continuation to that, today Dev Samaj Society has 22 educational institutions under its umbrella.  Dev Samaj College for Women, Ferozepur came into existence in 1934 in the Border area of Punjab. Today, thousands of women are being empowered every year under the aegis of DSCW. To date, his principle of value-based education for empowering women is the foundation of our ideology. In the preservation of its rich heritage and the promise of emancipation for women, the college has made its mark like no other. Forever in transition, from better to beyond the best, its journey is unending. From a modest beginning, Dev Samaj College has traversed a long way to evolve as an institution that has been discreet in every sense. The first of its kind, the institution has not ceased further the firsts’ tradition continuing to produce numerous firsts to its credit. Outstanding and unparalleled meritorious achievements have since been entangled in the infinite loop of the institution. It is one of the oldest women’s colleges under Panjab University established in 1934. It has the privilege of producing the First Lady IAS officer, First Lady MBBS, First Lady Principal of Lady Irwin Medical College, New Delhi and First Hindu Lady B.A./B.T., in the divided and undivided Punjab, First Lady Deputy Commissioner of Shimla, First Lady  Principal Secretary of the Prime Minister of India Mrs. Indira Gandhi, First Lady Governor of Madhya Pradesh &  First Woman President of the Tribune Trust (2000). 

Thus, growing and prospering through this unending saga, the tiny sapling which was planted 88 years ago in the border area of Punjab, has now taken the shape of a dense tree. The capsule of the journey, brought in a turbulent surge under the patronage of Shriman Nirmal Singh Dhillon, the Chairman(DSCW), and Secretary Dev Samaj that marked a rapid metamorphosis in the entire entity of DSCW, which is today India’s No.1 College (2013-14) with the exceptional CGPA of 3.75/4 awarded by prestigious National Assessment Council of India, Bangalore. U.G.C, Delhi has conferred DSCW with the celebrated status of “College of Potential for Excellence” Another feather added to the already proud cap of DSCW is the status of College of Excellence conferred by UGC in 2016-17. The Ministry of Science & Technology, New Delhi declared DSCW as Star College in the year 2018-19. Ex-Vice Chancellor Mr. Arun Grover declared this college the Role Model College of the Panjab University. Thus it has neither rested nor looked back. This major boom is well comparable to nebulae (star nurseries) at work–creating stars across galaxies. The metamorphosis is humongous. With the dedicated efforts of Shriman Nirmal Singh Ji Dhillon, DSCW, like Phoenix, has risen from its own ashes and blossomed into a magnificent temple of value-based, world-class education. But above all, this has always come with a promise, added and shared responsibility of the entire DSCW community – to never stop, to incessantly strive, and to forever deliver – for there is nothing perfect, the parameters always fall short and have met with each time they raise their bar. That is what our history is and that is what comprises our heritage – EXCELLENCE IN ALL ITS GLORY!!