Sethu Kumanan on mission to empower girls

Thiruvananthapuram: Most colleges that one knows of counts achievements in the glitter of gold medals. But Sethu Kumanan, founder of Soka Ikeda College of Arts and Science for Women, would rather talk about his students’ shining compassion. He said, “Our students contribute to world peace. They start with their own families. Our students understand the pain of others and wish to give back to their communities.”

It is not that his college has never had gold medalists. “One of our students, G. Aishwarya, had lots of health and financial issues. She was a bright B Sc Computer Science student. We told her that she need not pay tuition fees for post graduation, as long as she secures 80 per cent in each semester. In 2015, she stood first in Madras University in M Sc computer Science,” he said.

The college is in Chennai. He was in Thiruvananthapuram in connection with the release of the Malayalam translation of a book “Walking with the Mahatma”. It is a dialogue conducted by Daisaku Ikeda, his mentor and a Japanese Buddhist philosopher, with Gandhian N. Radhakrishnan.