In the words of Mahatma Gandhi, "If
you educate the man, you educate the person but if you educate the woman, you
educate the nation”.
If records and statistics are to be
believed it is clear that Mahatma Gandhi’s own people have not taken his advice
very seriously. This article as the name suggests focuses on the position of
women in India with regard to higher education. However it must be clarified that this article does
not look into the little development that has taken place or the small goals
that have been achieved that show how far along we have come, which is not
necessarily true. The fact remains that the majority of girl students are held
back from higher studies simply by virtue of them being girls. The small
percentages of improvement are not enough in the world’s second largest
population and third largest educational sector after United States of America
and China. Formulating laws and policies are not enough as it is seen that most
of the times these laws and policies just remain for the inaugural of the event.
Addressing the malice of gender discrimination of Higher Education in India has
been a long drawn battle for empowerment against powerful structural forces in our
society.
Most women in India discontinue their studies
after their class XII board exams for reasons such as early marriage, myths
related to loss of character due to ‘too much education’ and the like, reasons
which are not unknown to us. This scene although it is changing now, however,
is not changing fast enough. A majority of the families in India are yet to
familarise themselves with the concept of the girls in their families receiving
a good education as far they like (or can afford to) to begin with and later
the question of them having a professional career can be looked into.
To illustrate this stance, the example
of the falling rates of women students in at IIMs from 32% in 2013 to 26% in
2016 shall come handy. India happens to be the hub of IT development and this
sharp fall in the number of female students in the country’s top B-school has
hit a low. There are only 649 enrolled women in the batch for 2016-2018 at the
top six Indian Institute of Management (IIMs) from the near 800 women students
who were enrolled in the 2013 batch exhibiting a drop of 19% in these
institutes [1] This
problem, if the horse’s mouth is to be believed, does not lie with low
admissions of women but with low applications for admission in the first place.
If fewer numbers of women apply then naturally fewer numbers of women will be
admitted into the institute.
There are also fields of study typified
for women. NAAC study reveals that there is ghettoisation of women in fields of
Arts and Commerce and mostly men throng in professional colleges of
Engineering, IT and such fields.[2] It must be pointed out that this
disparity is much more in the rural than in the urban areas. However, the catch
lies in the fact that majority of India’s population lives in small towns and
villages and even that amounts to a very large number.
Where on the one hand Canada has
achieved a gender-equal cabinet, we are yet to achieve a gender-equal
classroom. A very important reason for this is also the fact that women, for
centuries now, have been viewed as unskilled labourers which when not
sugar-coated means to be given work that the men folk would not agree to do.
This division of labour shows how women do not need the education to do the work they shall do later in their
lives such as working on the fields, rolling
beedis, looking after the children and cattle or simply looking after their
homes.
A more recent turn in the events can be
the coming up of online education forums offering a wide selection of courses
which people of all ages can sign up to and study from their computers. The
question here remains as to what is the participation of Indian women in these
online platforms not only as developers and educators but more importantly as
the beneficiaries of this system. This can be especially beneficial to women
who have had to discontinue for whatever reason(s) and can now, much later in
their lives as mothers, home-makers and non-professionals can once again
restart their education in any given field maybe not for a degree or career but
for the sheer joy of learning and expanding their knowledge base.
Some of the measures that can be taken
up to encourage women to take up higher education are providing women role
models in the various fields of education and academics so that their success
might inspire women to not only continue their education but also inspire
parents that their daughters too could achieve the same if given a chance. Providing
counselling for both family and person concerned that having completed the
board examinations is not enough and that there is a sea of knowledge out there
waiting to be explored. The state and centre governments should also provide
scholarships to women pursuing Masters and higher degrees that the excuse of
economic insufficiency can be tackled.
There should be an increase in the
co-educational faculty of colleges and universities so that girls can have
somebody to look up to and aspire to be like while being able to choose from any
institution they want to attend. This will go a long way in also educating and
familiarising men from patriarchal backgrounds that women too have an equal
right to education and the young men who are students now will be the fathers
of daughters in years to come and that they do not repeat what they saw while
growing up. Lastly, there should be security for women both within and outside
the institutions so that the families are not apprehensive about their
daughters going to college especially if they are attending college in another
city or town altogether. For this women’s hostels should be established within
the campus itself (if possible) or close to it for not only security sake but
also to cut down costs of daily commute.
That India will achieve gender parity in
education, especially higher education, is beyond doubt going to happen
sometime in the future. However it is better for everyone that it happens
sooner than later so that no more talent is lost out on. There is now a need to
work towards a full-fledged plan to bring women to the academic forefront. The
number of women educational prodigies and geniuses that our country has lost
out on, we shall never know but the redemption lies in not losing any more of
them.
REFERENCES:
Sreeradha Dasgupta Basu and
Varuni Khosla, 2016 August 27, Women losing strength at IIMs down to 26% in
2016 from 32% in 2013, The Economic Times, retrieved from URL
Vibhuti Patel, 2011 October
15, Gender perspective to the issue and challenges in higher education
refresher courses, retrieved from URL
This article is written by Naquiya Nadeem, UG-III, Department of History, Jadavpur University, Kolkata.
