The word "universities" is derived from the word "universities", a term meaning any community or corporation devoted to learning. At the end of the 14th centaury, the work was used with the exclusive meaning of a lawfully reorganized community of teachers and scholars and gradually replaced the older term "Stadium general" which was a centre of instruction for all. We have references to Salermo University as early as the 9th centaury where medicine was also fought. It was the Paris University whose organization had a pervasive influence on all the central European universities including Oxford and Cambridge. The Paris University grew out of the School opened by William of Champeena during the early 12th Centaury.

       There were 19 universities with two lakes students in 1947 when India became independent. At present the number of universities has risen to 179. The colleges were first established at the beginning of the 19th contrary i.e. the Presidency College, Calcutta (also known as the Hindu College) in the year 1817. The universities came later. The first universities were established in 1857 in the three Presidency towns of Calcutta, Bombay and Madras. The next to be established was the Punjab University in 1882. Two other universities which had been established in the Pre-1947 period went to Pakistan.

       When the universities came to be established, the colleges ceased to be independent and became affiliated units of the universities. This was the pattern in the University of London at the time the first three Presidency Universities were established in India. While the University of London abandoned the system within few years, the system continues here and in fact, the affiliating system is to be found only in India. As an outcome of the recommendations of the Sadler Commission appointed in 1917, the Universities of Aligarh and Banaras were established which were unitary in character.

       The universities are the schools of education and schools of research. But the primary reason for their existence is not be found either in the mere knowledge conveyed to the students or in the mere opportunities for research affordable to the members of the faculty.

       Both these functions could be performed at a cheaper rate, even without these very expensive institutions. So far as the mere imparting of information is concerned, no university has had any justification for existence since the population of printing in the 15th Centaury.

       The justification for a university is that it preserves the connection between knowledge and zest for life by uniting the young and old in the imaginative consideration of leaning. A university imparts information but it imparts it imaginatively. A university which fails in this respect has no reason for existence. The atmosphere of excitement, arising from imaginative consideration, transforms knowledge. A fact is no longer a bare fact, it is invested with all the possibilities. It is no longer a burden on the memory. Imagination is not to be divorced from the facts, it adds luster to the facts. It works by eliciting the general principles which apply to the facts enabling men to construct an intellectual vision of a new world and it preserves the zest for life.

       Youth is imaginative and if the imagination be strengthened by discipline this energy of imagination can in great measure be preserved through life. The tragedy of the world is that those who are imaginative have but slight experience, and those who are experienced have feeble imagination. "Fools act on imagination without knowledge, pedants act on knowledge without imagination. The task of the university is to weld together imagination and experience.

       In the modern complex social organism, the adventure of life cannot be disjoined from intellectual adventure. In the simpler world the human relations were simpler, being based on the immediate contact of man with man and an immediate conformation with all relevant material circumstances. Effective action modern society requires discipline of character which can say "yes" and "no" to other men not by reason of blind obstinacy but with firmness derived from a conscious evaluation of relevant alternatives.

       In the early medieval history the origin of universities was obscure and almost unnoticed. There was a gradual and natural growth. Even now, amid the imperfections of all things human it is sometimes difficult to understand how they succeed in their work. Of course, there is much between the work of the universities. But, if one take a broad view of history their success has been remarkable and almost uniform. The universities have to prepare the students for the battle of life where they have to take up their posts.

       The way in which a university should function in the preparation for such competent individuals is by promoting the imaginative consideration of occupations. The routine then receives its meaning and also illuminates the principles which give it that meaning. Thus the proper function of a university is the imaginative acquisition of knowledge. Apart from the importance of imagination everybody can get to know bit by bit through practical experience. The only drawback of the method is that it gives less scope for personal in initiative and imaginative thinking.

       The combination of imagination and learning normally requires some leisure, freedom from restraint, freedom from harassing worry, some variety of experiences and stimulation of other minds diverse opinion and equipment.

       For successful education, there must always be a certain freshness in the knowledge dealt with. It must either be new in itself or must be invested with some novelty of application to new world of new times. It is the research work that keeps knowledge ever fresh.

       The university provides an opportunity and a forum where the experience of the old and enthusiastic imagination of the young are united creative activity. The old having been burdened by a series of similar experiences develop prejudices and mental grooves, so much so it becomes impossible for them to break new ground. On the other hand, the young are ever prepared to discard the beaten track and explore the un-charted seas. The combination of the two balances the shortcomings and makes for the free flow of the sparkling stream of knowledge.

       The output of a university in the form of original ideas is not be measured by printed papers and books. In every faculty one finds that some of the more brilliant teachers are not among those who publish. Their originality requires for its expression direct interaction with pupils in the form of lectures or discussions. Such men exercise immense influences and yet after the generation of students passes away, they sleep among the innumerable un thanked benefactors of humanity.

       For a compromise between freedom and acceptance of authority, universities should stress freedom of thinking because what is important is creation and not conformity.

       It is a pity that our universities fall far below the ideal. Freedom of thinking devotion to learning and zest for creation are things altogether unknown. The tradition of learning and scholarship has not been established so far and shall not be established so long as our teachers and student have to be labor under the constant stare of blue, red, gloomy, indistinct and undetermined future.

       The daily survival needs of predominant rural households are dependent on biomass - food, water, fodder, fuel, manure and fertilizer for agricultural purposes, building material like timber and thatch and herbs as remedies for various diseases. Availability of water, which is directly related to the biomass in the country where monsoons are not only uncertain but brief, is the most crucial resource affecting the lives of rural women. With the disappearance of biomass in the surroundings and environment sources of water like ponds and streams dry up soon after the monsoons. The surrounding environment also serves as provider of fuel, fodder, building materials and even food to some extent. Production and processing of biomass like agriculture forestry and village crafts based on biomass as raw material are still the main sources of rural employment.

       Unfortunately the increasing industrialization, urbanization and deforestation have shattered the biomass base of the country. This change has led to far-reaching effects on the life of rural people, especially in the biomass based subsistence economy. The maximum threat of environmental degradation is encountered by the women of marginal cultures like tribals and nomads and of rural areas.

       There are many complex problems which women face - work burden, lack of property, unequal distribution of food and other resources within the family, duality of roles, poor health delivery system coupled with inferior social status bestowed on women and their total lack of control over cash and productive resources. All these problems are acute in their own way and the environmental degradation only accentuates and heightens the existing problems.

       The traditional division of labor prescribes the household needs like fuel, fodder and water, to be in the exclusive domain of women. As these are becoming increasingly difficult to obtain, women are forced to spend inordinately long hours in search for them in addition to their many domestic duties. The natural topography in hills and deserts, dry, arid and semi-arid areas pose a greater problem to women living in these areas.

       As agricultural production in these areas is extremely limited and alternatives to fuel wood like cow-dung and cow-waste are minimum, it is the poor landless woman who faces the brunt as considerable amount of time is spent for foraging fuel and fodder. Even in areas where animal husbandry and agriculture have improved the availability of crop residues and dung, it is not necessary that the landless woman should benefit. This shortage of cooking energy affects the food intake of a woman and other members of her family. Thus, scarcity of cooking fuel forces many to reduce their energy for cooking. This means not only nutrient losses but also greater risk of infection and illness from eating stale food.

       Lack of clean drinking water is a well established health hazard. Carrying water is another strenuous activity of the rural women involving enormous bouts of time and energy. A study of rural water supply schemes in Andhra Pradesh has shown that irrigation schemes have adversely affected the drinking water supply and thus women too as they are primary carriers of water. Secondly, it is they who do the washing. More important child care is mainly their responsibility. Therefore, whenever children are infected, women are more prone to catch infection than man.

       Women suffer the most during drought or when the situation is particularly bad. They have to work much harder collecting more fuel, food and fodder. Deforestation and de vegetation in general makes nature harsher and the poverty and adversity of circumstances makes them totally helpless.

       Another major activity of rural women is care of cattle and collection of fodder. Government has paid little attention to the protection of fodder. Various social forestry schemes have not resulted in benefits commensurate with investment. Promotion of fodder on farm lands helps only those who own land while all others are left to fend for themselves depending on the immediate environment.

       Efforts aimed at rehabilitation of ecologically sensitive areas should necessarily take into account the burden of work of rural women, especially the women in hilly areas where the ecological destruction is at its worst and the work burden is the highest. Efforts at the government level like promotion of new technology, like bio-gas plants, fuel wood plantations, fuel conservation through use of smokeless Chullas and hand pumps will help reduce the rigours of rural living. But, most important is to envisage the role of women in the implementation of various schemes.

       Often it is not ignorance but literally the distrust of women's abilities to cope with new technology that leads to their neglect in official progammes. Women with their role in the household are left on their own to deal with the biomass in Order to fulfil the daily survival needs even as the growth and progress of economy destroys the equality and pulls men into its foil both physically and psychologically deepening the gulf between male and female interests.

       Unless the power of women is reckoned and their strength in the implementation and results of the schemes realized, in future, women would continue to suffer in the same way as their mothers and grandmothers.