 EDUCATION FOR WOMEN'S EQUALITY

Empowering Women Through Education

3.1.1 Female literacy outstripped the male literacy rate in the 80s, which is a testimony to three decades of State-civil society efforts to eradicate illiteracy from India. The impact of central and state initiatives was reflected in the decennial literacy growth rates: a healthy 7.76 per cent for men and a 9.54 percent for women.

3.1.2 The decennial literacy growth rates also signify a conceptual advance in the educational policy framework. The National Policy on Education is committed to ensure "a well-conceived edge in favour of women". The NPE recognises that the empowerment of women is possibly the most important precondition for the participation of girls and women in the educational process.

3.1.3 The effort to engender the educational system across the country begins with the understanding that opportunities for the girl child and women are far less both within the home and in the wider community. Role expectations of girl-child need to be transformed through the content, form and methodology of education.

3.1.4 Building a gender awareness into all the nuances of education has been a focal point for interventions across the system.

* One of the most successful efforts to link women's empowerment with education has been Mahila Samakhya. The programme is operational in 17 districts spread over the four states of Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh. The Samakhya approach begins with the understanding that women must identify their problems and evolve solutions at their own pace.

A critical factor in the process of empowerment has been the sangha or women's collective. The sangha is a forum where women can collectively analyse their problems and share their experiences. The Samakhya approach has been successfully adopted by several basic education programmes, including the Bihar Education Programme, District Primary Education Programme in Madhya Pradesh and in Assam.

* The Total Literacy Campaign (TLC) has been successful in raising the demand for education especially among women. In most of the 356 districts, women made up over 60 percent of adults enrolled in the programme. The classes have motivated women to fight for minimum wages and launch a crusade against prohibition.

* In campaign mode, the programme actively seeks to attract women and girls to participate in the educational process. In over half the TLC districts, post-literacy campaigns have begun and address the needs gradually being extended to the of neo-literate learners. TLC is educationally backward states.

* The effort to eradicate illiteracy among adult women is magnified at the primary stage. Under the scheme of Operation Blackboard, of the 1.27 lakh teachers appointed, 47 percent or 59,690 were women. In future, at least half of the teachers appointed are expected to be women.

* The Non-formal Education system is being extended to meet the needs particularly of girls who are unable to attend formal school. NFE centers run exclusively for girls, get 90 per cent assistance from the Central Government. The number of such centers would go up from 25 per cent to 40 per cent of the total.

* At the other end of the spectrum are the Navodaya Vidyalayas, centers for excellence, where at least one- third of the students would be girls. In both the Kendriya Vidyalayas and the Navodaya Vidyalayas, education for girls is free upto Class XII.

* Building on these schemes is the District Primary Education Programme which focuses on improving girls access to and participation in school. The programme, now operational in 42 districts is spread over seven states: Assam, Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. It is proposed to cover another 68 districts by the end of the 8th Plan. The attempt is to build in an equity focus from early schooling.

* DPEP's district focus is a conscious attempt to decentralise the planning process as a strategy to universalise elementary education. Educationally backward districts which have female literacy rate below the national average have been selected for the programme. As DPEP has a well-defined gender focus which ensures that all interventions and activities are gender aware, this effort to integrate a gender perspective begins with the planning process.

* In many states, free education for girls is already part of the effort to improve participation rates.

* For girls who complete Class X and then drop-out, vocational training programmes which emphasize entrepreneurship are being designed under a centrally sponsored scheme which consciously attempts to introduce new and emerging technologies to women.

* A new initiative in girl's education is the operationalisation of the scheme for assistance to voluntary organisations for strengthening boarding/ hostel facilities for girl students of the secondary and higher secondary schools. During the VIII Plan, 3,580 girls are expected to benefit.

* There has been a massive increase in the number of women who enter university. From 40,000 in 1950-51, the number of women enrolled in higher educational institutions and polytechnics has gone up to 20,65,000 in 1995-1996, across the country.

* In the technical and professional higher education programmes too, there has been a marked increase in the participation of women.

* The University Grants Commission has been encouraging institutions to take up research projects in the area of women's studies by providing the necessary funds. UGC has also assisted 22 universities and 11 colleges and set up women's studies centers. Besides there are 40 positions of part-time research associateships for women.

EDUCATION FOR WOMENS' EQUALITY

Meeting the Demand for Education

A. The Experience in Mahila Samakhya, Uttar Pradesh

Mahila Shikahan Kendras are emerging as centres of mainstream education. Launched in Banda, one of the districts with the lowest female literacy in Uttar Pradesh, MSKs are also being set up in Varanasi and Saharanpur. The MSKs are drawing in girls and women who have been school dropouts or never enrolled at all, but whose desire for learning is paramount.

MSKs are able to make education more attractive to women and girls in rural areas as the subjects chosen and the methods used to disseminate knowledge were rooted in the specific context of the village or block. Thus prospective students through group discussions decided that they wanted more information about land; water; forests; and the village community.

Both students and the teachers were involved in the process of developing materials and lessons for each subject. Teachers were chosen from among those running literacy classes in the village. In addition, as students were weak in language and maths abilities but had a lot of information to share, the teachers were selected with a view to provide students with inputs and helping them make best use of information available.

It is envisaged that the MSKs will soon broaden the area of work, provide skill training in traditional and non-traditional areas.

MSKs are the latest innovation in linking education to women's empowerment. However, they only cap a series of achievements in making education relevant to the needs of local women and girls and ensuring that it is provided at a pace, set by the women themselves.

Over the past few years, the 76 Mahila saksharta kendras spread over the four Samakhya districts have attempted to meet the growing demand for education.

Beginning with literacy camps, organised for sakhis and sangha women in Banda district, the effort to learn more was translated into mahila saksharta kendras for neo-literate women. At the learning centres, women would gather every day to learn together.

Sahelis or friends as the teachers are known, introduce the alphabet through specific local words.

Also a newsletter, Mahila Dakiya, or the women's post, was launched. Published bimonthly, it is widely circulated in the area.

It is to satisfy this growing demand for education that MSKs have emerged. The Kendras reflect the Samakhya venture to alter the paradigm of education for women further, so that no horizon remains out of reach. We have selected our path but have yet to define it; the definition of which perhaps will emerge as we work towards this vision.

B. The Experience in Mahila Samakhya, Andhra Pradesh

A similar scenario is seen in Andhra Pradesh. In the two districts of Medak and Mahboobnagar, sangham women articulated a demand for education quite early.

The sanghams actively look for the right teachers and help in the development of the right reading and writing materials. From the beginning, literacy was viewed as a step in the process of taking control of one's destiny. Thus literacy did not end with being able to sign one's name, instead it was viewed as the beginning of a journey.

As women joined literacy classes, they also actively sought quality education for their children, particularly their girls. A summer camp was organised in both districts. to expose girls to the vistas opened up by education. These summer camps helped increase enrollments to the village schools and into government hostels. It also helped the community understand the need for educating girls.

Through discussions, Women identified older girls as needing special attention. As parents are reluctant to send them outside the village, non-formal education centres are being opened.

Once again the sangham members helped identify educated young women and men in the village who could be instructors.

The Sanghas are intervening in issues of relevance to women and the larger Community. Thus sangham members took a stand against the marriage of a 12-year-old girl whose mother is a sangham member. Such small yet significant victories in transforming social practices are the signature of a successful Samakhya venture: of empowerment through education.

PRIORITISING GENDER

Operational in 42 districts spread over seven states, the District Primary Education Programme has an inbuilt gender perspective. A primary objective of the programme is to reduce differences in enrolment, drop-out and learning achievement between social groups and among girls and boys to less than five per cent.

As DPEP is being implemented in educationally backward districts which have a female literacy rate below the national average, a twin track approach is being followed. While all planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation processes have an inbuilt gender focus, the district-specific and state-wide plans include specific interventions for girls. Thus the effort within the programme is to:

* Manage the process of bringing about change in the educational system using a gender aware approach.

* Make the educational system more sensitive and responsive to the needs of girls and women.

* Enable women to demand education for themselves and their daughters.

Interventions for girls' education initiated as part of the programme include:

* Alternative schooling

* Flexible school timings to accommodate the needs of girls

* Gender-aware curricula and text-books

* Recruitment of more women teachers.

* Improved school buildings with adequate sanitation facilities.

* Sensitisation programmes to help teachers and project managers become more gender-aware.

* Educational Incentives.

These interventions will build on the supportive milieu in the community. To garner public support for girls education, the role of mothers is considered crucial.

* Village level women's collectives are being formed.

* Activists are drumming up community support to ensure all girls get at least primary education.

* Local bodies, such as village education committees, mother- teacher councils and other women's groups are being trained and empowered to take a more active interest in the education of girls. They will be specially involved in mobilising the community to actively support the education of girls.

* These village-level organisations will also be trained to monitor the functioning of schools. The involvement in school management is seen as crucial to ensure that girls and boys are treated equally in classrooms and schools.