OPINION
Women’s
Education : A Long Way To Go
India
is about to achieve its fifty fifth year of Independence.
It is time to take stock of achievements made by India in
different fields. When viewed in this context, the achievements
of India have been far below our expectations in many fields
though we might have excelled in some fields. It is now
being increasingly felt that the major cause of our failure
to achieve some of the targets is lack of education.
In
the matter of education, countries like Chine, Korea, Malaysia
and Indonesia were in the same state as India in the fifties.
At present all of them are ahead in terms of literacy rate.
Their success in developing human capital is also reflected
in their economic development. The time is certainly ripe
to accelerate the pace of education in our country, which
would certainly provide further impetus for fuelling higher
growth. It needs to be emphasized that the education of
females assumes more importance, which has not so far been
given the attention it deserved.
The
data reveal that in India the female literacy rate is abysmally
low. In 1971, only 18 per cent all Indian and a mere 13
per cent of rural women were literate. In 1981 out of a
total literate population of 36 per cent, the per cent of
females was 25 per cent and that of literate male was 47
per cent i.e. almost twice that of literate females. The
1991 literacy rate of the nation is 52 per cent out of which
literacy rate among the males and females is 63 and 39 percent
respectively. The 1997 data indicates literacy percentage
for males as 73 and that of women as 50. It is a matter
of concern that the gap between literacy rates of males
and females is not closing but rather widening.
The
literacy percentage of Scheduled Castes increased from 10.27
in 1961 to 37.41 in 1991. The literacy among males was 16.96%
in 1961 which increased to 22.36% in 1971, 31.12% in 1981
and 49.91% in 1991. The literacy percentage of Scheduled
Caste females was as low as 3.29% during 1961 which has
now increased to 23.76%, thereby registering an increase
of 20.47 percentage points during the period 1961-91. The
literacy rate of Scheduled Tribe was 8.53% during 1961 which
has increased to 29.60 during 1991. The tribal female literacy
rate was as low as 3.16% during 1961 which increased to
18.96% during the year 1991. If more than 80 per cent of
a particular population group remains illeterate, how can
we expect developments to take place at a faster pace?
There
are disturbing indicators all round. According to National
Census, 1991, as many as 32 tribal communities in rural
areas and 29 in urban areas returned not even a single literate
female. The dropout among weaker sections particularly among
tribals is also very alarming. It is about 90 percent at
secondary level. Thus the gap between the literacy rate
of males and females is a matter of serious concern and
unless strenuous efforts are made, a large segment of our
population will remain outside the realm of development
and the target of education for all will only remain a dream.
To
a large extent the society bears the greater share of responsibility
for the prevalence of discrimination against women. Instances
have also come to the notice where many of the educated
women tend to fail to take full advantage of the opportunities
available because of their self-imposed restrictions and
under estimation of their capabilities.
Improvement
in educational status of women is essential for achieving
progress in the status of women related to areas like employment,
health, the exercise of legal and constitutional rights,
and in attaining equality of status and equal opportunities
in education itself. The gap between the educational development
of advanced classes and the backward ones as also the urban
areas and rural areas is also to be abridged not only on
grounds of social justice but also for the furtherance of
democracy.
Education
not only benefits the individual but also the society because
an educated person contributes to nation building through
his/her skilled labour power and immensely through his/her
intelligent and cultured political and social behaviour.
Our programme of empowering women will succeed only when
women are not only educated but enlightened also. Therefore,
no cost is too high to educate a girl child. Some incentives
and disincentives will go a long way in improving the educational
status of women. One of the suggestions is that education
of girl children should be made a criteria for state’s share
in central revenues.
The
education of women is of even greater importance than that
of men. There cannot be an educated people without educated
women. If general education had to be limited to men or
to women, that opportunity should be given to women, for
then it would most surely be passed on to the next generation.
An educated mother who lives and works with children in
the home is the best teacher. It also helps the women in
successfully running the household, taking care of her children
and in functioning as an effective human being in the society.
The
significance of the education of the girls cannot be over
emphasized. Realising the fact that women play a pivotal
role and education of women is of even greater importance,
Government is now concentrating on the education of girls
and their enrolment in primary schools, in providing adult
literacy and nonformal education so as to access them to
better skills and better quality of life. The results now
available are however, not very pleasing. No doubt universal
and compulsory primary education with special emphasis on
girls is the best strategy for social development in our
country. I am of the opinion that all pubic schools should
run an afternoon program for school drop-outs and female
children from disadvantaged segments of society.
Government
is certainly on right track. Making primary education a
fundamental right is not enough; it has to be vigorously
pursued and faithfully implemented. Mere rights are no guarantee.
Resource crunch should not come in the way. However, it
will have to be ensured that poor people are in no way harassed.
A
sustained effort at creation of educational infrastructure
for tribal women and girls of weaker sections in general
and in particular tribal women and similarly placed groups
like Muslim women in some pockets is the first sine-qua-non.
Further, if female education has to receive a boost, the
number of girls schools and specially residential schools
should multiply fast enough in rural areas. It is important
that educational institutions should chase the pupils and
not vice versa. Government should provide economic security
to the people by effective implementation of various poverty
alleviation and employment generation programmes. Age-old
conventions like an investment on study of a girl will ultimately
benefit her husband’s family have also to be changed by
introducing various flexibilities specially focussed for
the girl child’s education.
Concerted
efforts will have to be made to persuade the parents to
allow their girl children to attend classes. Thus, the need
for a pari passu adult education is also to be realized.
Technical problems like lack of proper teachers or dedicated
teachers, non-availability of teaching material, improved
facilities in terms of proper class-rooms, as well as lack
of student incentives will also have to be solved. One major
hindrance to education of girl children is lack of trust
on part of parents for male teachers. A Public hearing in
Kanyakumari brought out the case of a girl child who was
raped by a priest 11 times. Services of retired people should
be utilized for teaching girl children so that there is
no risk of rape, etc. If elderly people are gainfully employed
in the sphere of education the chances of enrolment for
girl child would surely increase. Once these things are
attended to, education in our country will get a boost,
which will help, in speedy implementation of our development
programmes and usher in a new era for our people.
-
Dr. Mohini Giri
(The author is Chairperson
of Guild of Service, Delhi Branch.
