For a millennium, India has been the land of iconic women who’ve played a unique role in governance, policymaking, defence, religion, etc. and brought many drastic reforms in society. But 800 years of colonisation by foreign invaders has deteriorated the core moral, cultural and educational values of our country. The Sultanate and Mughal rulers were completely against women’s education, and Britishers had no interest in it. After independence, the education structure that grew out of communism never focused on female literacy.Ir merely made it an on-placard affair by subverting the traditional civilisational knowledge.
According to the Census, the overall literacy rate in 2011 in India was 73%. But, women’s literacy rate was only 65%. There exists a gender gap of around 16% between male and female literacy rates. This gender split is higher in rural areas. The rural female literacy rate is only 57%, while the rural male literacy rate is 77%. However, according to the All-India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) report, 2018-19, the gender gap in the country has narrowed over the past few years, after several new policy interventions by the current government. The female students constitutes almost half (approx. 48.6%) of the total number of enrollments in higher education. Nevertheless, there is a long way to go to bring gender parity.
Gender Disparity In Society
In most Indian families, a son’s education is prioritised over a daughter’s schooling. Girls are more likely to be engaged in domestic activities such as childcare and household work to provide economic support. This is more pronounced in lower-income households, rural families, and households where both parents work. The presence of younger siblings affects a girl’s education negatively — in terms of gross attendance, time spent on learning activities, learning performance, etc.
Early marriage is one of the chief reasons for adolescent girls dropping out of schools and prevents their access to education and development. Expenditure on girl’s education is lower than that of boys within families. More boys are enrolled in private schools and tuition than girls. Also, parents anticipate relying on their sons during their old age. This leads to differential treatment in their school enrollment, educational expenditure, and access to learning resources.
Gender Disparity In School Curriculum
A gender-responsive educational curriculum will reverse gender bias and discrimination within the educational system as well as society. This requires a transformation of our traditional methods of teaching, learning discourse and resources. Even today, textbook pictures depict men playing certain games, activities and labour, while girls are shown performing only traditional domestic activities.
In history, students are taught more about male leaders than female leaders, and women’s achievements are marginalised. Most of our stories portray women engaged mainly in traditional female roles such as housework and childcare, while male characters are shown earning for the family. Teachers reinforce gender bias by expecting girls to do better in craft activities, while boys are expected to perform well in science and math.
Dropouts In Girls
In India, girls enroll late and drop out early. The progress of girls from primary to upper primary level is also lower than boys. Foremost reasons are lack of upper primary schools nearby; girls forced to support the family’s economic survival by childcare and household work and the gender cultural attitude towards girls’ education. The dropout rate for girls in upper primary level is very high at 18%, according to the Ministry of Human Resource Development. In many families, girls are not permitted to travel long distances to go to school for fear of safety, and lack of toilets and public facilities in schools.
Gender Disparity In Employability
According to the International Labor Organization, the female labour participation rate in 2017 was 27%, which is a 7% decrease from 34% in 2001. There are more than 50 million women in India who are neither going for study nor work. Monster Salary Survey, 2016, shows that women in India earn 25% less than the women from the rest of the world. The manufacturing sector shows the highest gender pay gap, while there is considerable gap even in other fields including banking and IT.
Although more women enter the IT sector, some of them end up leaving soon. Almost 60% of women have a work experience of 1-3 years, while only 2.7% women have an experience of more than 10 years. Gender diversity is needed in workspaces across all sectors of the economy. Though female enrollment in engineering and medicine colleges is high, those getting enrolled for IITs, postgraduate research, and elite institutions are low. This might be a reflection of the parents’ bias in higher education expenditure. It results in less number of women in the R&D sector and senior management levels.
Multilayered Discrimination In Case Of Marginalised Communities
By denying access to educational or socio-economic opportunities as well as political power, our society discriminates against women from marginalised communities, including Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Castes, migrant children, Dalits and poor Muslims. Girl children who are not part of the mainstream society face social exclusion in schools, and a weak monitoring system further prevents accountability and grievance redress. Due to the scattered nature of many of the Scheduled Tribes, their geographical access to schools is difficult. Dropout rate among children of migrant workers is very high.
Eradicating Gender Disparity With The NEP 2020
To tackle the above subjects and articulate an India-centric educational system, the new National Education Policy, 2020, has been designed by a committee chaired by scientist K Kasturirangan. The policy has prescribed to approach gender as a cross-cutting priority to achieve gender equality in education with the partnership of states and local community organisations. The GOI will constitute a ‘Gender Inclusion Fund’ to provide quality and equitable education to all girls. The fund will focus on ensuring 100% enrollment of girls in schools and a record participation rate in higher education, decrease gender gaps at all levels, practice gender equity and inclusion in society, and improve the leadership capacity of girls through positive civil dialogues.
The policy will emphasise the number of women on leading positions of the institution, including principals, teachers, wardens, physical instructors and other staff. To decrease the gender imbalance among teachers (especially in some rural areas), alternate pathways for female teacher recruitment will be introduced without compromising on merit and qualification, both educational and professional. NEP 2020 will focus on the safety and security of school-going girls both inside and outside the campus.
Schools have to ensure harassment, discrimination against women, and domineer free campus before enlisting for yearly accreditation. This will increase the attendance of girl children in the classroom. The policy will identify social mores and gender stereotypes that prevent girls from accessing education and cause dropouts. The teachers, Anganwadi workers, and local social entrepreneurs will be trained to deliver proper counselling to families of girl children.
All educational institutions will be mandated to conduct awareness sessions on gender issues to break stereotyped gender roles, on the importance of a harassment-free environment and equal treatment of genders, and on legal protection and entitlement for girls and women under Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses Act (POCSO), the Maternity Benefit Act, and the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act.
This training will aim to raise awareness of teachers and educational administrators of a gender-sensitive and inclusive classroom management. The policy will specifically concentrate on the educational upliftment of underrepresented socio-economic and socio-cultural groups, and facilitate additional scholarships and fellowships.
The curriculum will be gender-neutral, technology-oriented, and more adjunct to sustainable employment. The NEP has also recommended vocational training inside school campus to acquaint students with first-hand experience of a workplace. In the end, the policy has a clear vision of reconstructing the nation’s learning methodology and building a vibrant Bharat.
Note: This was originally published here.
About the author: Omm Priyadarshi is a Development Studies Scholar from NIT, Rourkela. He typically writes on socio-political, Environment and gender-related issues. He tweets @iommpriyadarshi