Teach a Man and You Teach An Individual, Teach a Women and you Teach a Generatio- Essay, UPSC MAINS | Course for UPPSC Preparation - UPPSC (UP) PDF Download

Teach a Man and You Teach An Individual, Teach a Women and you Teach a Generation

structure

(1) Opening    —    Women’s education has always been neglected. Literacy rate a poor 38%.

(2) Body    —    Wherever women’s education spread, advances took place e.g., Kerala. Population growth rate, infant mortality rate, birth rate fell down. Female health, children’s education looked after. Women’s rights are protected. Dowry is unknown.

    —    The reason is that by teaching a women, we make a mother literate. ‘A child’s mother is her greatest teacher’. Educated women are emancipated. Take care of her children. Better citizens.

    —    Automatic motivation for the spread of education.

    —    Man works, but woman spends more time with her children. ‘Filteration theory’ acts.

All through the history, women have not been given their due in the society. They have been underfed, exploited and disrespected. All the social customs are so made that they weaken women’s position and keep her subdued and submissive. Unfortunately, our literacy drive seems to have been plagued by the same ill. The result is that the female literacy percentage is dismal. The rate is even horrible in the BIMARU states.

If we took at other socio-economic indicators, we find that all the states where female literacy rate is low, are economically weak and socially backward. The various indicators like birth rate, infant mortality ratio and female mortality ratio are amongst the highest in BIMARU states and female nutritional status, child’s education standards and child’s health all are very poor. On the other hand in the state like Kerala we find that higher level of female literacy has caused all round progress and development of the state. Not only this, female rights abuses are minimum in such states.

Why is it so? The reason is not too far to 

seek. When we teach a man, we teach one person but when we teach a woman, we teach a mother. Mother is child’s most effective and important teacher. So by teaching a woman, we are spreading the light of literacy among one generation. An educated woman is an emancipated woman. She produces children who 

are enlightened, healthy and well-groomed. These children of today become citizens of tomorrow. And with such able citizens, the country is bound to progress.

It is a universally acknowledged fact that while man spends less time on his children, a woman, be she working or not, will always find time to look after her children. So she has a greater role to play in shaping child’s personality and moulding his outlook. A child learns maximum from her mother. An educated mother can give right knowledge to her children. She thinks rationally and teaches the same to her children. She can never see her children go uneducated. She will be most insistent upon sending her children to school be it even at the cost of her hobbies, interests or even stomach. This is because she appreciates the importance of education. So with an educated mother, we can safely assume that we have most effective motivator for the spread of education. The so-called ‘Filteration theory’ fits very well into it. If we 

teach a woman, she acts as a filter to spread education among many others.

Woman belongs to a weaker section of the society because she suffers from many handicaps due to rigid, outdated social customs and religious practices. But an educated woman cannot be exploited easily. She is aware of her rights and will go any length to defend them. Having experienced problems herself, she understands the difficulties faced by other women. She is therefore more sympathetic to their cause. Also, with the armour of education around her, she acts as an initiator, a motivator and a leader of the movements to remove social malaise from the society. She can share very intimate relationship with other women and therefore, promote them to voice their grievances. She then acts as a carrier of their aspirations and lets the people in power know it. Having studied history and politics herself, she understands the power of unity. So she can act as the force to unify the unprivileged section of the society and then force leaders to accede to its demands. Of course, she acts as a grand role model for other women to follow. Not only in India, but even in the developed countries like US and UK, the right of vote was obtained by the women only when they themselves waged a struggle under the leadership of those who were fortunate enough to get educated.

Going back again to her role as a mother, she is solely responsible for the health and well being of the family. She knows the importance of cleanliness and well balanced nutritious diet. She teaches the same to her children. So she produces children who are healthy and also conscious of their civic duties. She acts as a very good civic teacher. All the campaigns for following traffic rules, fighting diseases, hygiene etc. will be a waste if the woman of the family is uneducated and they will be not only very effective but sometimes even unnecessary if the woman of the family is educated.

All the discussion above goes on to prove that female education is very important. In fact, it should be the thrust area for our literacy drive. Man may get himself educated for purely economic reasons and being the sole bread earner in most of the cases, he doesn’t pay so much attention or is inspired as much for his children’s education as his educated wife would be. So by teaching women, we are in fact creating a torch bearer of change, a harbinger of literacy.