Secretary’s Message

A Living Memorial of Commitment to Rural Women’s Education

Our great motivation Hon. Sharad Pawar and his colleagues Ms. Hasel Skuces, Ms. Edna Wazar, Shri. Kamlakant Dhavan-Patil, Shri. Gulabrao Gawade-Patil, Shri. Pushpasen Gore, Shri. Haribhau Waghmode, and Shri. Gulabrao Wabale founded the Agricultural Development Trust in the year 1971. The activities of the Trust majorly focus on agricultural extension work and education for girls, which truly proves to be a living memorial of the mother of our great leader.

The educational campus at Shardanagar has been named after late Smt. Shardabai Pawar, mother of Shri. Sharad Pawar and Dr. Appasaheb Pawar, who encouraged women’s education. Farmers would not send their girls far away for education due to safety and security reasons. As a result, girls’ education was meagre in the villages. Dr. Appasaheb thought of a residential educational complex for girls, and thus the education college for women started in 1989 at Shardanagar.

Today, in the Shardanagar educational campus, around 15,000 girls are seeking education in different disciplines and getting placements in renowned fields. Shri. Rajendra Pawar and Mrs. Sunanda Pawar diversified and flourished the activities of the Trust in various fields like environment, education, food processing, new experiments in agriculture, Self Help Groups (SHGs) for women, “Srujan” – the cultural youth festival, “Bhimthadi Jatra” – a fair for the sale of articles of Self Help Groups – and new methods of water conservation.

The Agricultural Development Trust has become a unique conglomerate helping people right from agriculture to education and from health to entrepreneurship. The overall development of the agrarian and rural community has been the prime concern of the Trust. It has undertaken several projects for the development of agriculture in Baramati Tehsil such as water conservation, drip irrigation, poultry, dairy and many more.

Shardabai Pawar educational complex was a dream child of the founder Chairman of the Trust, late Dr. Appasaheb Pawar, which is now a fully bloomed seat of education for women in the rural area. Healthy practices with a safe and secure environment for the all-round development of girls has been our priority. Efforts to educate people and make them competent and skilful have resulted in exemplary development of Baramati. We aspire to make our pupils responsible citizens of the nation, successful entrepreneurs and service providers contributing to the development of their families and society.

The exhibition “Krushik” is an innovative step towards empowering and awakening farmers in the state. “Swayamsiddha”, a unique higher education girl youth transforming programme, is being conducted since the last 12 years and has been gaining good response from all corners of the state. It has proved an excellent platform for inculcating leadership among girls. Bhimthadi Jatra has inspired many Self-Help Groups to utilize their entrepreneurial skills. All these social activities and excellence in academic curriculum have created tremendous trust among students and parents, which is truly incredible.

There are yet many promises to keep in this realm of women’s education, and we assure you that we will not rest until we achieve our goal of complete women empowerment in the true sense.

With warm regards,
Mrs. Sunanda Pawar
Trustee & Secretary, Agricultural Development Trust, Baramati