The New Indian Express Group organised the third edition of ThinkEdu Conclave on February 20 & 21 in Chennai. Like the previous years, this year’s edition brought together policy-makers, educationists, historians and scholars to discuss the state of Indian education. Furthering the cause of education and making it affordable and accessible to all, the speakers concluded, is the most effective way to propel India forward on the path of development. The focus of the 2015 event was ‘Building Skills for India’s Future’.
One of the sessions discussed the topic: Is our curriculum anti-women? The panelists included members of Parliament Kavitha Kalvakuntla, Supriya Sule, Sushmita Dev and actor-turned-politician Khushbu Sundar. The session was chaired by Omar Abdullah, former chief minister of J&K and leader of the National Conference.
Experts from the discussion:
Kavitha Kalvakuntla (KK): We speak very highly of women in our textbooks. But somewhere we’ve drifted and here we are discussing about our curriculum being anti-women. We do talk about Rani Lakshmi Bai and Mother Teresa but when it comes to images depicting women’s role in a family, we show women either scrubbing the dishes or fetching a pail of water while men are shown shouldering more masculine or, say, impressive jobs. It’s a disparity that we notice regularly in the textbooks. We need to slowly change this. NCERT books—where it’s the government’s responsibility to decide the content and sell the books—somehow doesn’t put in too much content when it comes to south India’s representation. There exists a bias there too.
Supriya Sule (SS): Having been brought up as the only child of my parents, I have to say that I have grown up not facing any gender bias. Even in my state of Maharashtra, the curriculum has always been very balanced and gender-equal. Pune University, one of the oldest in the country, has been very liberal when it comes to women education and gender equality. People across the country used to be amazed that how women clad in nine yards of saree are allowed to bicycle their way into the colleges and study along with the men. But there came a time when textbooks gradually became gender biased. For example, a girl would always be shown cooking food and a boy would be shown reading a book. A decade ago, things changed with Sarva Shikha Abhiyan, the flagship literacy programme for governments and agreed on across parties. NCERT tries to make an effort to bring about change but education is a concurrent subject and there are limitations to it. Pratham did a country-wide survey and concluded that most of our curriculum is satisfactory.
NCERT is making the much needed changes and most states are also cooperating. The problem lies in the social attitude. There was a school in Bihar that refused to give admission to children of the mahadalit community. So, curriculum is not the only thing to be blamed. We are making a lot of interventions but I also agree that there’s a lot more that needs to be done. I’m sure things will change and we won’t have to discuss this topic in the next edition of ThinkEdu Conclave.
Khushbu Sundar (KS): I certainly believe that there is gender discrimination in our education system. We’ve been taught about Mahatma Gandhi, Chandrashekhar Azad and Bhimrao Ambedkar as a part of our curriculum but how many of us have heard of the women freedom fighters of India except a few like Jhansi ki Rani and Sarojini Naidu. In other countries, students are taught about women achievers but not in our country. Freedom fighters from Tamil Nadu have no representation in the curriculum at all. Another problem is that we don’t think of the country as one. Every state has a different education system and curriculum. So, if a student has to move to a different state, he/she finds it difficult to compete with other students. School and college is where we grow up, evolve and learn. So, why should the education system be different from one state to the other? Coming back to gender discrimination, it’s sad that it’s the 21st century and we’re still talking about our curriculum being anti-women. But the fact is it exists. Gender discrimination can only be finished if it is taken up by schools and addressed in our textbooks. Schools and their curriculum need to make it clear that a man cannot achieve anything or get to where he wants without the support of women. That is the only way this discrimination can stop.
Sushmita Dev (SD): I believe the most important textbook in our country is the Constitution, which tells us that everyone’s equal. Equality is often confused with empowerment. But to me, equality is that ‘I don’t want more but I’m not going to settle for less.’ Even if our Constitution says we’re equal, the parliament feels compelled to keep legislating. The question here is how can education share the burden of removing gender biases as it’s not the responsibility of policy-makers only. In fact, to me, education is the most important tool of equality. Coming to the topic, I think ‘anti-women’ is a strong word but there’s definitely a gender bias in our curriculum. NCERT’s admitted position is that there is a gender-bias in the textbooks. It’s sort of camouflaged as the role of women is stereotyped. In textbooks, she’s never shown as a pilot or a doctor. This when textbooks are very powerful tools that can reach even remote villages. They can tell a young girl that she can also dream of flying to space. They can tell a boy that he, too, can take care of a child and play a role in the family. That’s the power of textbooks. People who prepare the curriculum need to realize the kind of impact textbooks can have on young minds. I also feel that a textbook is more powerful than any religious book and a teacher has more power than any religious leader and that’s why we need to educate all our children.
Omar Abdullah (OA): Ok, so what you all have said is that our school curriculum is not necessarily anti-women or heavily biased in favour of men. It’s definitely silent when it comes to the success of a woman, whether in the freedom movement or other arenas such as business. So what exactly do you feel there’s a need to correct and how can our curriculum start recognizing women’s success stories?
KK: There used to be a moral education class in school when I was growing up. This has now been removed on the basis of being religious or non-secular. But I believe moral education plays a serious role in not only teaching women to be more confident but also teaches men how to be more respectful and understanding towards women. It not only inculcates a sense of understanding among young men that they need to respect a women’s point of view but also inspires young girls to go out and become successful professionals. Although, there have been major changes in NCERT textbooks over the years, there’s still scope to improve this.
SS: Another thing is sensitizing the boys through sex education which we now call ‘family education’. This topic has been discussed at major forums in schools. For example, as a way to sensitize boys, a picture shows a mother leaving her way to a picnic and her son helping her. There has been conscious intervention at various levels. If we can include more women in the policy making process, it can make a huge difference.
OA: What also seems to appear is there’s a north-south divide in the country and we approach issues with systems and cultures we’re born with. I come from a state where I wouldn’t believe that female foeticide would be a problem. But the belief was shaken in the last census. Also, in South India, it doesn’t seem to be as much of a problem as it is in the north.
KS: Talking of a north-south divide, we assume that education helps us get rid of social evils such as female foeticide but there’s a growing number in Tamil Nadu too. It’s only reported less in South India.
OA: If what you are saying is true for Tamil Nadu, it’s clearly not reflecting in the numbers. It’s also ingrained in us that it’s a ‘North Indian’ problem. Talking of our plocy-making, Sushmita and Kavitha have talked about how difficult it’s for women in political parties to convince their leadership to give more tickets to women to fight elections.
SD: The real power of education is that it can tell a young mind not only about his/her past but also what his/her future should be. If in a poor family a mother tells her daughter to drop out of school just because she’s a girl, there are enough examples of highly educated people too suffering from gender bias. Stereotyping women’s role in the society needs to change. What we are discussing here is the problem, not the solution. The question is what our policy-makers and educationists can actually do to change attitudes towards education and gender-bias.
OA: We’ve been discussing if the curriculum is anti-women but there’s also a fundamental question of our educational infrastructure being anti-women. Even the basic facility like toilets for girls in schools is missing, so how do we expect girls to go to schools?
SS: Talking of sanitation, an intervention has been made. The Zila Parishad system in Maharashtra also gives books, bicycles and clothes to the girls free of cost. Meena Manch under the Sarva Shikha Abhiyan was set up to give a platform to school girls to discuss their problems. Now that we have education and skill building in place, what really needs to change is the mindset. Social issues don’t get resolved only through education. Reforms have to be made with the help of the socity for the society. Doctors, legislation and media should work together and also ‘want’ to make a difference in the society. It’s a challenge but it’s not impossible. All we need is will power.
OA: Now we should also let the audience participate in the discussion.
A member of the audience: I want to ask whythe 33 per cent reservation bill for women is still pending. Why can’t political parties voluntarily give 33 per cent of tickets to women? Also, if reliability is a factor in Tamil Nadu, the local bodies here would have never had 33 per cent reservation for women like it does now. Why do parties need a law to give women their due?
OA: What I have found from my own experience is that when we give a ticket to women to contest an election, our opposition strategically positions a man. Unfortunately a woman are mostly on the losing side. Perhaps, reserving certain number of seats for women tackles half of the problem. I don’t feel reservation is a definite answer as you can’t have reservation forever. But at least, with reservation, we can get the men used to the fact that women can be as good as men, if not better, in the political domain as well as public-policy domain. In Jammu and Kashmir too, it started with local body elections. We thought we wouldn’t get candidates and had a feeling that people will have to nominate women to fill the vacancies. But there wasn’t a single seat that went uncontested. Women not only contested elections, they also won and went on to perform their jobs well.
KK: I feel there shouldn’t be a gender discussion in politics at all. It should be about ideas and issues. But reservation will ensure that men get used to seeing more women in Parliament and understand that women too are able contestants.
SD: I wish the parties would pass a law where it would be compulsory to have a certain number of women candidates in the party.
OA: Mandatory should be the word. I’ve heard men who said that they’ll give their seat to their sister, daughter or mother only to take it back after the first election. So, it’s like the women can be used to keep their seats warm.
A member of the audience: I am Nooraine Fazal. Shouldn’t we create heroes out of men who have contributed to the success of women and include them in the curriculum?
SS: We do have stories about progressive men like Shivaji Maharaj and Bhimrao Ambedkar but we need more examples on a national level.
KK: We’ve made only a small stride in changing our curriculum but the process has begun.