SNV Sadanam in Thiruvananthapuram celebrates its centenary with a legacy of empowerment and education of women

SNV Sadanam in Thiruvananthapuram celebrates its centenary with a legacy of empowerment and education.

For Avani Pannicker, a student of Secretarial Practice from Kollam, the spacious SNV Sadanam at Bakery Junction in Thiruvananthapuram is second home. “I have been staying here for seven years now and it really is my home in Thiruvananthapuram,” she says.

It has been a second home for generations of young women who flocked to Thiruvananthapuram to study. Inspired by social reformer Sree Narayana Guru’s words to acquire knowledge to gain emancipation from dogmatic practices, women from all over Travancore reached the capital city as the only college for women [Maharaja’s College for Women, now the Government College for Women] was located here and it was a hub of education.

“In those days only women from the ‘upper castes’ could get accommodation in homes for students. Aware of the plight of young women who were unable to find a place to stay on account of their caste, Sree Narayana Guru entrusted TV Narayani Amma, a devotee, to open a hostel for women that would not discriminate on the basis of caste, creed or religion. That was how Sree Narayana Vidyarthini Sadanam (SNV Sadanam) was started,” says Anitha Balaraman, secretary of the Trust, which runs the hostel today.

The saint and social reformer gave Narayani Amma a gold sovereign to lay the foundation of the hostel.

On July 20, 1924, the hostel began functioning from a rented place near the Government College for Women at Vazhuthacaud. Within a short time, the then government recognised the hostel and gave a grant for its functioning.

Within days the hostel was full. “Women came from other districts and far-flung places in Thiruvananthapuram. Students from privileged castes would easily find places to stay. The SNV Sadanam became a haven for women from all strata of society to pursue their studies,” explains Nalini Vijayaraghavan, president of the Trust.

BY 1935, there were three hostels run by the SNV Sadanam and applications continued to pour in. By then Narayani Amma had handed over the working of the Sadanam to the Sree Narayana Vanitha Samajam. Those at the helm of the Samajam realised the need for a place of their own for the hostel.