Women’s Education: A Historical Perspective | UPSC Mains Essay Preparation PDF Download

Women’s Education: A Historical Perspective

structure

(1) Opening    —    Subtle change in the issues relating to women.

(2) Body    —    The position of women in ancient India.

    —    Education of women during 19th century.

    —    Education of women and different institutions.

    —    Education of women in 20th century.

    —    Different policies on education.

(3) Closing    —    With education as the major tool, the sex roles of men and women are being redefined.

Just three decade ago, only those women who held important positions in the society attended the women conferences. Today the scene is different. In the international conferences many ordinary women are a part of the conference and project their views on various issues. This is  something which would not be visualized earlier. This apparent change raises a very vital point. What phenomenon could have brought about this subtle change in the issues relating to women?

How is it that the women today look forward  with hope and courage towards equality in society? Earlier they did not enjoy any status and were subjected to a number of restrictions. It is well-known that the fate and destiny of a new born was decided by the gender of the child.

During Vedic period women enjoyed a rich educational status. The Vedic society was free of any gender bias and imparting education up to 8 years was a universal phenomenon. It is not surprising then that we had Gargi and Maiteryi as outstanding examples of equality of education and freedom of expression in those days, too.

However, this status was not enjoyed by women for long. The rise of the brahmanical period marked a sharp decline in overall status of women. A new foundation was laid as far as norms and codes of conduct for women were concerned. The most distinguishing feature of this age for females was that women’s predominant role began to be viewed as a nurturer and producer. All other functions and goals receded in the background.

Naturally, with this major shift, the goals of education were also redefined. Many other evil practices like sati, child marriage, out-casting widows etc. were at their worst form. In fact this period can be termed as the darkest period in the history of women and their education. The rise of Buddhism accounted for a slight change in the status of women and their education.

Making the pre-Independence period, as Britishers established their empire in India, a socio-cultural revolution in Indian society too place with great impact. The early nineteenth century was still dominated by various superstitions as far as educating the girls was concerned. Hence real education was virtually absent from the scene.

The earliest state level efforts regarding the education of girls date back to the Woods Despatch Commission (1854). The Indian education commission in 1882 greatly deplored the backward condition of girls education and strongly recommended the use of all kinds of funds and facilities for girls.

In addition to the various measures adopted by the British Government, the individual as well as collective efforts of some of the Christian missionaries created the much needed base for the development and progress of education of girls. Nevertheless, these pioneering and persistent efforts by the missionaries were viewed as a threat by our secular, religious and national leaders. Consequently, a number of institutions like the Dev Samaj, the Ramakrishna Mission, the Arya Samaj, the Sanatan Dharam rose and eliminated the feat of conversion. These reformist and revitalizing institutions, while laying a strong foundation for the educational system for the Indian girls believed that the only way to fight against the prevalent evils in the existing social system was to impart education to girls.

As many young men sought education and joined the British government as clerical staff, there was a shift in the attitudes that an educated girl would make a better adjusted and more compatible wife to the urban, educated Indian male. Even though the aim of imparting educations was to enhance their matrimonial prospects, and curriculum was designed accordingly. Nevertheless this became one of the most significant factors towards the growth of education of girls. While on one hand, the remarkable development in the field of education of girls (1901-1921) is attributed to public awakening and great social reforms, the efforts adopted at the state and national levels accounted for a substantial growth from 1921-1947.

In spite of various improvements and reforms, the post-independent India still offered a bleak future as far as education of girls was concerned. A lack of concrete goals of education for girls was clearly visible in the Indian educational system during the first two Five Year Plans. Home science continued to be the main focus of curriculum. There was still a confusion dominating in the society as to whether to impart science and maths education to girls. Co-education system of education was another dilemma faced by the society and planners at large.

The Durgabai Deshmukh Committee (1958) was set up to identify the existing gaps in the education system. Also, the second Five Year Plan stressed to provide special schemes for girls to take up occupations like nursing, teaching, other health jobs and social services. Major emphasis of the third Five-Year Plan was to expand the existing infrastructure. The voluminous Indian education commission (1964-66) reiterated the implementation of all the previous policies and committees and the National Policy on Education (1968) stressed the importance of education of girls not only from the point of view of equality but also to accelerate the process of social development.

The report of the Committee on the Status of Women in India, “Towards Equality” in 1975 brought to light some of the factors missed out earlier. The report clearly stated that the women were denied basic needs like health, nutrition

and education. It emphasized that the poor literacy rates and ratio, declining sex ratio, concentration of women in the low paid occupations were an all pervasive phenomenon. It was recognized that the entire infrastructure was inadequate and inferior and the women had no role whatsoever in any kind of decision making. During this time, there was an upsurge of peripheral programmes towards improvement and implementation of the recommendations made by various committees. A number of schemes offering incentives to girls and their parents like the functional literacy programme, the National Policy Resolution on Child, ICDS etc. took the child as gender-free category and had a deep impact on the overall improvement on the development of girls. The fifth Five-Year Plan notified major loopholes and declared women as special target group and thus adopted special measures. It was identified that out of the total non-enrolled children, 73 per cent were females and that only 38 per cent had been enrolled in the age group between 11-14 years. The UEE programme was an extremely successful campaign as it combined enormous incentives like free uniforms, taxi-books, mid-day meals etc. With the realization that many girls were unable to benefit from the educational programmes as they were required to attend to the needs of the family in terms of taking care of the siblings, or supporting the family income; the schemes like Angan Balwadis, and some kind of income generating activity after school hours were started. The above measures resulted in an unprecedented growth in the enrollment ratio of girls. A total of 94 per cent were enrolled at primary level, the enrollment ratio for girls exclusively rose to about 76 per cent by the end of sixth Five-Year plan.

The National Policy on Education, 1986 can be identified for taking the most revolutionary and bold measures to enhance the status of women. It charted out a detailed plan to make education as an agent for basic change in the status of women. It specifically stated, “education and training for economic self-sufficiency is a high priority area at all levels of education and in non-formal education and adult education”. In the National Perspective Plan for Women (1988-2000 A.D.), emphasis was on the skill generation among rural women. It sought equality of sexes through the educational process.

It is a happy augury that the gross enrollment ratio of children in the age group 6-11 has gone up considerably and for girls, it has touched 88.1 per cent. As is evident by educational indicators, regional and gender disparities still exist. Yet, because of the affirmative policies of the Government and many non-governmental organizations, the status of girls and women education is very bright in future. The feminist organizations and NGO’s have generated many areas of social thought and have attacked the traditionally dominated belief where women were confined to the ‘unchanging’ domestic milieu. Today women education is a major issue, being supported even by political leaders who are asserting and seeking to over-come the oppression of women in all forms. Women study is an accepted part of the curriculum in many universities. With education as the major tool, the sex roles of men and women are being redefined. Though child care and domestic responsibilities still remain a core task for most women and they still remain clustered in routine occupations, the educated women are able to fight adverse factors like poor job security, fewer promotion chances and other prevalent gender bias. With major thrust on the development of girls and a child free of gender bias, it is a matter of time that India would realize its lofty goal of Education For All .