Doctorate for Kannada actress Jayamala

Award winning Kannada actress Jayamala will be conferred with a doctorate by the Bangalore University for her research on rehabilitation of destitute women in Karnataka.

Jayamala, who was in the news a couple of months ago for entering the hill shrine of Sabarimala in neighbouring Kerala, kept out of bounds for women, will be awarded a doctorate during the next annual convocation of Bangalore University.

With the Bangalore University accepting her thesis on “A study on ehabilitation of destitute women under the administrative set up in Karnataka”, Jayamala becomes the first film personality in the State to secure a doctorate through actual study.

Jayamala, who had only studied till SSLC in regular school, completed her Master of Arts degree through distance education. She entered film world at a young age of 13 years.

The actress, who has so far worked in about 75 films, including Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam movies during her distinguished career, won the national award for her portrayal in the Kannada film “Tayi Saheba”. The movie, which had been produced by her, also received the “Swarna Kamala”, the highest film award in the country.

As part of her research, Jayamala made several trips to Bagewadi in north Karnataka’s Bijapur district to study the condition of women displaced by the construction of Alamatti dam.