Women’s Education In India

We still have a long road to travel when it comes to the education of women in India, says Anjana Nagabhushana.

"Mulgi shikli, pragati zhaali". For those unfamiliar with Marathi, this means, "An educated girl ensures the progress of the country". This one-liner, often found at the back of auto rickshaws in our own Mumbai, is one of the Government's awareness initiatives for the education of the girl child. Some of these slogans and campaigns have been really good. But what does it mean to the average woman in India? Has it made a difference? Have the efforts paid off?

Let's put this in perspective. For that, we need to step back in time.

Immediately after India overthrew the British rule, in 1948-49, the government of India appointed the University Education Commission. Headed by Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, scholar, philosopher, and a President of India, the Commission focused on higher education. The Commission report, prepared by Dr. Radhakrishnan, opens with an angry statement damning the British Government for their lax approach towards women's education. 

A large portion of the report is dedicated to women's education, and it reiterates the importance and relevance of the same, along with a mention of the government's obligation to provide equal educational opportunities for married as well as unmarried women. Although it suggests that unmarried girls might want to be gainfully employed—and that was a big advance at the time—the report emphasizes with equal vigour that motherhood and home making are, and will forever remain, central to the lives of women. There is nothing wrong with the viewpoint. Educated mothers make a huge difference to the thinking of the entire family. In fact, decades after this report, it has been proven that in communities where the literacy rate of women is higher, instances of dowry deaths and female infanticide are far fewer.

Further, the Constitution of India, formed in 1951, asserted the equality of all citizens in the eyes of the law. In addition, it identified women (along with the country's various tribes and formerly untouchable castes) as one of the weaker sections of society—sections that have been wronged and discriminated against for several generations. Through the subsequent years, the Government has emphasized education as one of the tools for the advancement of these sections. Interestingly, this happened long before governments of other nations had even thought of it. But where have these 55 years of proactive policy-making led us? 

Even today, in 2005, we need slogans like "Women Empowerment" and "Shikshit mulgi, surakshit parivar" to be written at the back of auto rickshaws to remind us that girls need to be educated. This makes it amply clear that government programs and policies are empty rhetoric. Nothing will change unless society's approach to the issue changes and some real opportunities are made available to women. 

Why would a lower middle class family, in globalised, liberalised, urbanised India, send their daughter to school when the immediate impact is one less hand to earn a living? For example, in Maharashtra, despite incentives such as free education for girls, including free books, uniforms, and even food, most bais choose to pull their daughters out of school. They would rather have them "learn the trade" and make themselves fit for a livelihood later in life than waste time in school. It doesn't matter that the child does not know to count or calculate the change that a shopkeeper ought to give her.

That’s not the only thing. It’s also interesting to note that in urban India, even among the educated sections of society, the remunerations for men and women are different. Women are paid less. This adds to the reluctance of lower middle class families to invest huge amounts in the higher education of their daughters.

What, then, is the solution? Why are almost 50% of the women in India still uneducated? There are no straight answers to this one. It's a complex issue and needs sorting out at various levels. We might even have to sort out some more issues like female infanticide before we arrive at women's education.

While it may be near impossible for our society ensure an "education" for every daughter, it is definitely possible, I daresay, easy, to make her literate. If our efforts are consistent, we may see more women in rural India who can at least scrawl their name.

I know it's a mammoth effort and would take the next fifty years to get there. I think our best hope is the "Each one teach one" policy. The way I see it, the educated urban youth need to find their way into every village and small town in India to ensure at least basic literacy. In our own homes, we can contribute by home-tutoring children.

The media has a huge role to play as well. The reach of radio and television is phenomenal. The depiction of women on the idiot box can make an impact that can only be imagined. Rural women have to be made aware of their potential beyond the house. In all this, the media should be careful not to project all urban, career-oriented women as selfish people who cannot care for their families. Street plays and other audio-visual media can also be leveraged effectively. 

Similarly, in the depiction of rural women, there should be no attempt to preserve or glorify their rustic beauty. We need to treat them as people who need to be made aware of their rights and potential. After all, these same women are behind success stories like "the cooperative movement called Amul" and the hugely inspiring Lijjat Papad. To these women, the benefits of working in an industry should be emphasised. They should be made aware of incentives like maternity leave and housing loans. Awareness is the key.

Of course, there is no denying that many of the efforts over the last 55 years have paid off. But a lot remains to be done. It's about time that women made an effort to exercise the equality made legally available to them. I know there's a long way to go. But I also know that we have it in us to do it.