Status of Women in Education

Done by, G.P.Rubia Amal

Value of women's education

• NO COUNTRY can achieve development without educating her women. The education of women is as important as that of men. It can even be said that educating women is of greater importance. If we educate a woman, we educate a family. An educated woman can perform her duties with great efficiency. She can run her family in a better manner and can help her children in their studies also. Moreover, if a woman is educated she is treated with respect. She has not to lead a life of dependence on men, since she can earn her own living (bread and butter). Education fills her with confidence and she is able to win her due place in society. 

• Today, government has become aware that female education is as important as that of men. A Sanskrit shaloka says that “a woman is under the guardianship of her father before marriage dependant on her husband after her marriage and on her son after the death of her husband." But this attitude of treating a woman as a ward or a dependent has been in existence for centuries. But now all these have changed. With the spread of education women have now begun to claim equality with men.  

• Access to education has been one of the most pressing demands of theses women's rights movements. Women's education in India has also been a major preoccupation of both the government and civil society as educated women can play a very important role in the development of the country. 

History of Women's Education in India

• Vedic period :-

Although in the Vedic period women had access to education in India, they had gradually lost this right. However, in the British period there was revival of interest in women's education in India. During this period, various socio religious movements led by eminent persons like Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar emphasized on women's education in India. Mahatma Jyotiba Phule, Periyar and Baba Saheb Ambedkar were leaders of the lower castes in India who took various initiatives to make education available to the women of India.

• However women's education got a fillip after the country got independence in 1947 and the government has taken various measures to provide education to all Indian women. As a result women's literacy rate has grown over the three decades and the growth of female literacy has in fact been higher than that of male literacy rate. While in 1971 only 22% of Indian women were literate, by the end of 2001 54.16% female were literate. The growth of female literacy rate is 14.87% as compared to 11.72 % of that of male literacy rate. 

Importance of Women's Education in India: 

• Women's education in India plays a very important role in the overall development of the country. It not only helps in the development of half of the human resources, but in improving the quality of life at home and outside. Educated women not only tend to promote education of their girl children, but also can provide better guidance to all their children. Moreover educated women can also help in the reduction of infant mortality rate and growth of the population. 

Gender discrimination

• Gender discrimination still persists in India and lot more needs to be done in the field of women's education in India. The gap in the male-female literacy rate is just a simple indicator. While the male literary rate is more than 75% according to the 2001 census, the female literacy rate is just 54.16%.

Prevailing prejudices, low enrollment of girl child in the schools, engagements of girl children in domestic works and high drop out rate are major obstacles in the path of making all Indian women educated. 

• It is believed that women in ancient India enjoyed education in the Vedic period. Patanjali in his works suggests that women had education during the beginning of the Vedic age. Maitreyi and Gargi are mentioned in the Rig Ved and Upanisads.

• However the decline began from the 5 century BC with Smritis and further in the medieval ages with the purdah system, child marriages etc restricting women from equal status with men.

• The Bhakti movement questioned some of the forms of oppression amd traditions like sati, jauhar and devadasi have been banned. The Constitution of India guarantees the right to equality to all Indian women without discrimination.

• The literacy rate before independence was 2-6% rose in 1961 to 15.3% and 50% by the year 2001

Women Education in Ancient India

Women Education in India today• Kerala and Mizoram are the only states in India that have

achieved universal female literacy rates. The improvement in social and economic status of women is said to be one of the reasons for literacy. In cities the literacy rate is almost equal between girls and boys in the country. However the rate in rural areas continues to be less than the boys. Hence 40% of the centers under NFE, non formal education programs are set apart for women.

• According to statistics of women education in India today 0.3 million NFE centers have provided education to 0.12 million girls out of 7.42 million children. However in tribal areas there is not much of a gender bias as compared to all other castes, tribal community statistics show lower male ratio inspite of much low income, literacy, education and other facilities. Several efforts are being made towards women education and empowerment.

• The government is taking steps to increase the rate of women education and employment. Students preparing for women education essay can find details and information on importance of women education, women education today, women education in ancient India on several websites of education.

NGOs for Women• Several non governmental organisations NGOs

have been instrumental in promoting women education, health and other important aspects necessary for women in India.

• Missionary schools continue to offer yeoman service in hundreds of schools in the country.

• Chetanalaya in Delhi is an NGO that offers non-formal education to empower women in several spheres such as health, income-generation, saving schemes etc.

• The UNICEF as well as other international organizations contribute towards quality education of women in India.

• The Jhabua district saw 22 mobile schools offering formal education through tents to tribal and migrant people of the district. 3,600 child laborers were brought to mainstream education in Tamil Nadu with the help of UNICEF support.

• The NGOs that work for women empowerment in India are several, as they assist in women education against the prevalent evils in society viz. the dowry system, violence against women, gender bias etc. Several Mahila Mandals also empower women through offering women 

Muthulakshmi: India's first woman doctor had a heart of gold

• Muthulakshmi was the first woman doctor in India. She had earlier been advised not to appear for the very difficult M.B and C.M. course but she had prevailed and shocked everyone by getting the 100 per cent result in surgery and most of the merit medals and prizes of that year. This was at a time when some professors did not even allow women to sit in their class. They would ask junior lecturers to take classes for girls separately. 

She later became active in the social arena and was the prime mover behind the legislation that abolished the system of dedicating young girls to temples (devadasi) and played a role in raising the minimum marriage age for women. 

She founded the Cancer Institute (WIA) in Madras and Avvai Home, the first institute in Madras to admit and educate poor and destitute girls with no caste bias.

Abala, Lady Bose  • Abala, Lady Bose (Bengali:  Ôbola Boshu) (April 8, 1864 – August

26, 1951) was a social worker well-known for her efforts in the field of women’s education and her contribution towards the alleviation of the condition of widows.[1]

• She was amongst the early students of Banga Mahila Vidyalaya and Bethune School (established byBethune), and passed entrance with a scholarship in 1881. As she could not secure admission toCalcutta Medical College, being a woman, she went to Madras (Now Chennai) in 1882 on Bengal government scholarship to study medicine but had to give up because of ill health. She was married in 1887.[1]

• She was one of the early feminists, apart from being an educationist. Writing in the Modern Review, a leading English magazine in those days, she argued that women should have a deeper and extended education. ‘not because we may make better matches for our girls… not even that the services of the daughter-in-law may be more valuable in the home of her adoption, but because a woman like a man is first of all a mind, and only in the second place physical and a body.’ It was from her that Kamini Roy, who studied with her in Bethune School, picked up the threads of her feminism.[2] Upon her husband's knighthood in 1916, she became Lady Bose.

Educating women leads to:?

 • [ Date : Jun 29th, 2010 ]• Chanda Kochhar (born November 17, 1961) is

currently the Managing Director (MD) of ICICI Bank and Chief Executive Officer (CEO). ICICI Bank is India’s largest private bank and overall fourth largest bank in the country. She also heads the Corporate Centre of ICICI Bank. Kochhar has also consistently figured in Fortune’s list of “Most Powerful Women in Business” since 2005. In 2009, she debuted at number 20 in the Forbes “World’s 100 Most Powerful Women list”.

• Early life• Chanda Kochhar was born in Jodhpur,

Rajasthan and raised in Jaipur, Rajasthan. She then moved to Mumbai, where she joined Jai Hind College for a Bachelor of Arts degree. After graduating in 1982 she then pursued MBA and Cost Accountancy(ICWAI). Later, she acquired the Masters Degree in Management Studies from the prestigious Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai. She received the Wockhardt Gold Medal for Excellence in Management Studies as well as the J. N. Bose Gold Medal in Cost Accountancy for highest marks in the same year.

ICICI CEO – CHANDA KOCHHAR

INDRA NOOYI – CEO OF PEPSI

Early life and career

• Indra Nooyi was born in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. She completed her schooling from Holy Angels AIHSS, Chennai. She received a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce from Madras Christian College in 1974 and a Post Graduate Diploma in Management (MBA) from Indian Institute of Management Calcutta in 1976. Beginning her career in India, Nooyi held product manager positions at Johnson & Johnson and textile firm Mettur Beardsell. She was admitted to Yale School of Management in 1978 and earned a Master’s degree in Public and Private Management. Graduating in 1980, Nooyi joined the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), and then held strategy positions at Motorola and Asea Brown Boveri.

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conclusion

• Women of present is much liberated than the past. The statue of woman has undergone a great change today. They are making sincere efforts to rise in all spheres of life. Women have proved to be more responsible and work with great dedication