About the college

Jogamaya Devi College was established on 17^th July, 1932 by Dr. Shyamaprasad Mukherjee in response to the growing demand for centres of women’s education in Kolkata.  It was started as the morning section of Asutosh college with 155 students enrolled for the I.A. course. Panchanan Sinha was the first principal of the college.

 A part of Jatin Das Park was leased to the Asutosh Memorial Institute by the Calcutta Corporation for the construction of a new college building. The college shifted to this new address, 92-S.P. Mukherjee Road, in 1935.  This building, overlooking the busy Hazra crossing and adjoining the refreshing green of Jatin Das Park, functions as the main Academic Building of the college to this day.

The college was renamed as Asutosh College for Women in 1948. It began its existence as a separate establishment in 1957 when it was delinked from Asutosh College and was affiliated to Calcutta University. The college was renamed Jogamaya Devi College in 1958, after the demise of Lady Jogamaya Devi, wife of Sir Asutosh Mukherjee.

Jogamaya Devi College was the first women’s college to start the Geology Honours in 1956. Principal Jyotish Chandra Banerjee started the NCC Training Programme which is running successfully to this day. The Zoology Honours Programme was started in 1973 by Principal Arundhati Sen , the first Lady principal of the college.

An annex building was built in 1992 at 5A, Rajeswar Dasgupta Road to accommodate the new departments and the increasing number of students. It currently functions as the Administrative Building of the college.

The Botany Honours, Statistics (General), Sociology (General), B.Com (General) and the Communicative English (Major) programmes were introduced by Principal Dr. Subrata Gupta. The B. Com. (Honours) and Psychology (Honours)   programmes were subsequently introduced by Principal Gargi Nath, who also established the Post-Graduate Study Centre in collaboration with Vidyasagar University. B. Com Honours in Taxation and Computer Science (General) Programmes were introduced in 2015.

The college opened its first regular two-year post-graduate programme in Botany in 2014. The Post-graduate programme in Bengali was started in 2016.

The present Principal, Dr. Srabani Sarkar has introduced several add-on courses since 2016.

These include courses on Foreign Languages, Professional Development, Human Rights, Value Orientation, Montessori Teachers Training etc.

Land for college’s Rural Campus has been purchased in 2019 near Garia, South 24-Parganas. Planning and development of this new campus is in progress.

Overcoming countless challenges along the way, the college has today emerged as one of the largest women’s colleges in West Bengal with over 3000 students hailing from all over India as well as Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh. The teachers, non-teaching staff and students of the college persevere to keep alive its rich legacy of excellence. Its cosmopolitan character and emphasis on a holistic development centering on academics have earned the college a unique position in the sphere of women’s education. The innumerable alumni who have achieved distinction in diverse fields bear testimony to the fact that the students of our college have contributed generously to the betterment of not only our society but also of the wider world.