Social Welfare Society Clarifies On Inviting Applications From Unmarried Women 

Hyderabad: After its notification inviting applications from "unmarried" women for admission to degree courses created a row, a Telangana Government body on Thursday clarified there is no bar on married women from applying.

The notification, issued by the Social Welfare Residential Educational Institutions Society (TSWREIS) on Wednesday, raised eye brows as it mentioned that applications are invited from (unmarried) women. "The TSWREIS invites applications from women (unmarried) candidates for admission into B.A/B.Com/B.Sc 1st year Degree courses for the academic year 2017-18. "The candidates are requested to visit the TSWREIS website at http://www.tswreis.telangana.gov.in for application form, prospectus and eligibility criteria," it had said.

The TSWREIS said there was no bar on married women from seeking admissions. The spirit behind saying unmarried women is to facilitate admission "straightaway" for eligible girls who complete the age of 17, TSWREIS Secretary RS Praveen Kumar said.

"In this particular instance, it was erroneously understood that we are totally preventing married women joining our residential degree colleges. Our girls will be of 17 years of age when they complete 12th grade and we expected them to join our residential degree colleges straightaway. "This was the spirit behind the notification and we clarify that we don't deny anyone admission on her marital status," Kumar stated in a release. He stated the Society was "deeply committed to overall development of our girl students, their safety, their studies, and life-changing careers at this critical stage of their life."

TSWREIS is a educational institution, which organises a number of social welfare residential schools in Telangana.