{"id":444480,"date":"2026-02-02T10:47:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T10:47:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/444480\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T10:47:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T10:47:12","slug":"how-a-dads-lament-jolted-fm-into-action-on-girls-hostels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/444480\/","title":{"rendered":"How a dad\u2019s lament jolted FM into action on girls\u2019 hostels"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"HowFM Sitharaman during her Budget 2026 address NEW DELHI: Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman<\/a> recounted a touching personal encounter that jolted her to budget for girls\u2019 hostels in STEM and medical colleges.In a first-of-its-kind post-budget interaction with around 30 college students, she said, \u201cI met a father recently who said his daughter qualified for a premier institute, but he couldn\u2019t send her because he couldn\u2019t afford a safe place for her to stay nearby. That stayed with me.\u201d <\/p>\n

PM Modi Calls Budget 2026 Historic As Reforms Empower Youth Women And India\u2019s Growth Push<\/p>\n

\u201cA girl\u2019s merit should never be defeated by the lack of a hostel room. That is why this budget makes it a mission to have a hostel in every district \u2014 to ensure that your \u2018merit\u2019 has a home,\u201d Sitharaman added, underlining the link between infrastructure and equal opportunity.Instead of heading to television studios and newsrooms post-budget presentation, her team reached out to universities to bring together students for direct engagement. \u201cI would like to know from you what the experience of sitting in Parliament and listening to a Budget was like,\u201d the FM asked the group during an interaction at Kartavya Bhawan-1.The students had earlier watched the Budget presentation from the Lok Sabha Gallery before visiting the finance ministry office, where senior officials briefed them on policy formulation and institutional processes.Fielding questions on both the Budget and her own journey as finance minister, Sitharaman said that presenting the budget was an act of \u201cconstitutional accountability\u201d, saying it comes with the humility of knowing policy choices shape the lives of nearly 1.4 billion people. The minister also outlined the four pillars guiding the exercise \u2014 the poor, youth, farmers, and women.When a student asked about how she handles the pressure of high-stakes numbers, Sitharaman reframed the process beyond spreadsheets. \u201cThe budget is not just about numbers; it is about the trust of the people,\u201d she said, adding, \u201cWhen I sit to finalise the speech, I don\u2019t see just figures on a paper; I see the face of the common citizen and the aspirations of the Indian youth.\u201dShe added \u201ctrue equality is not just about handouts; it\u2019s about creating a level-playing field where a student from a remote village has the same digital and educational access as one in a metro\u201d. She said, \u201cThe Budget is a sacred document of govt\u2019s intent. By coming here and seeing it live, you are witnessing democracy in its most transparent form.\u201dShe also spoke about Halwa Ceremony, describing it as the point where the team moves from policymaking into a \u201clock-in\u201d phase, becoming a close-knit family working in isolation for the nation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FM Sitharaman during her Budget 2026 address NEW DELHI: Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman recounted a touching personal encounter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":444481,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[89852,28,209026,209027,101,209023,209024,209022,209025,83893,12049],"class_list":{"0":"post-444480","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-budget-presentation","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-college-student-engagement","11":"tag-constitutional-accountability","12":"tag-economy","13":"tag-female-students","14":"tag-financial-accessibility","15":"tag-girls-hostels","16":"tag-infrastructure-for-education","17":"tag-nirmala-sitharaman","18":"tag-stem-education"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=444480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/444481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}