 EDUCATION FOR WOMEN'S EQUALITY

4.1.1 The National Policy for Education recognised that the educa- tional structure had not been able to address traditional gender imbalances in educational achievement and that women and girls contin- ued to have low levels of literacy and be marginalised from develop- ment. The NPE made a strong commitment to "a well conceived edge in favour of women" as "an act of faith and social engineering". These commitments have been translated into concrete guidelines, and have resulted in a number of interventions which focus on the empowerment of women as the critical precondition for their participation in the educational process.

4.1.2 The impact of these programmes is reflected in the decennial growth rate in female literacy of 9.54% (Census 1991), which is sig- nificantly higher than the corresponding figure for males (7.76%). However much remains to be done to reach the goals of gender equality in education, Social, economic and cultural factors which keep women and girls out of the educational system, still persist in many states where the rate of female literacy is below the National average.

4.1.3 A majority of poor women live in situations which make them unable to have access to education. These factors include:

- poverty, survival issues, and daily struggles for wage, fuel and fodder;

- rigidly defined social roles and norms which prevent interactions with others and lack of opportunity to come together and use collective strength;

- lack of access to information and alienation from decision making process;

- low self-image and lack of confidence, and

- lack of adequate and gender-sensitive education infrastructure.

4.1.4 As a result of these and other factors, women are caught in a vicious, self-perpetuating cycle. Their inability to participate in education perpetuates the stereotype that education is irrelevant to them.

4.1.5 The following special provisions for women have been incor- porated in the existing schemes of the Ministry:

* The Operation Blackboard scheme now provides that at least 50% of the teachers recruited in the future should be women. Out of the 1,13,259 posts of the teachers filled under the OB Scheme, 48.60% are by women.

* An innovative approach taken up in Rajasthan to improve access to education is the Shiksha Karmi Project. It is envisaged substitution of the primary school teacher in single teacher schools by a team of two locally resident educational workers called Shiksha Karmis, of whom 10.2% are women.

* Under the Scheme of Non-Formal Education, 90% assist- ance is given for NFE Centres exclusively for girls. The scheme has recently been revised so as to provide more facilities for educating girls by increasing the ratio of NFE Centres exclusively for girls from 25% to 40% of the total.

* Efforts are being made to ensure that at least one third of the students in each Navodaya Vidyalayas are girls. In Navodaya Vidyalayas and Kendriya Vidyalayas, free education is imparted to girls up to class XII.

* Free education is provided to girls upto class VIII in Punjab (Govt. Schools), Manipur, Rajasthan (Govt. Schools), UP, Delhi, Meghalaya and Chandigarh and upto Secondary stage in AP, Assam, Bihar (Govt. Schools), HP (Govt. Schools), Karnataka, T.N. (Govt. Schools), Mizoram and Lakshadweep and upto Senior Secondary Stage (Class XII) in the States of Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, J&K, Kerala, Sikkim (Govt. School), Tripura, W.B., A&N Islands, D&N Haveli, Daman & Diu, Pondicherry, Gujarat and M.P.

* Under the centrally sponsored programme at +2 level, vocational programmes with emphasis on entrepreneurship are being designed, to cater to the needs of girls who drop out of schools. Efforts are also on to consciously encourage participation of girls in the non-traditional and emergent technologies.

* Women's education at the university and college levels have been diversified and reoriented in tune with the changing requirements of society, industry and trade. The number of women enrolled in institutions of higher education increased from 40,000 in 1950-51 to about 16,64,000 in 1993-94 (an increase of more than 41 time over the 43 year period).

* The enrolment of women students at the beginning of the year 1993-94 was 15.90 lakh as against 15.12 lakh in the previous Year. At the post graduate level, the enrolment of women was 34.09% of the total enrolment.

* The UGC has been providing assistance to universities for undertaking research projects in women's studies; a number of research projects have been approved for assistance. Also assistance has been provided to 22 universities and 11 colleges for setting up women's studies/cells. The UGC has also created 40 positions of part-time research associateships for women candidates.

* The participation of women in technical and profes- sional streams has also shown a marked increase, from a little over 6,000 in 1950-51 to 1.46 lakhs sin 1986-87 (an increase of 23 times). There was also noticeable growth in the number of women students in the Engineer- ing & Technology streams. (In IITs and Polytechnics). As against 40 women students in 1950-51 (0.3%) it rose to 16.67 thousand in 1986-87 (7.7 %) and 78.3 thousand in 1993-94 (13.1%)

Innovative Programmes

4.2.1 The District Primary Education Programme (DPEP) has been launched in 42 districts spread over 7 states (Assam, Haryana, Maha- rashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and M.P.). DPEP seeks to opera- tionalise the strategies of decentralised planning to universalise elementary education. One of the conditions for selection of dis- tricts is that it should be educationally backward with female litera- cy below the national average. DPEP has a well-defined gender focus and incorporates a component of women's empowerment through education, as well as special interventions for girls.

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4.2.2 In the Total Literacy Campaigns (TLCs), women are a special focus. The general trend that has been observed in most TLC districts is that the enrolment of women has been over 60%. In many districts, TLCs' have resulted in mobilization of women around social issues like prohibition and minimum wages.

4.2.3 TLCs have been sanctioned in 338 districts and PLCs in 130 districts all over the country. Through the NLM, out of an estimat- ed 104 million illiterates, 80 million would be made literate during the 8th Plan Period and the majority of them would be women. A total of 350 districts would be covered through TLCs. The remaining 24 million persons would be covered through the literacy and adult educa- tion programmes to be implemented by voluntary agencies, educational institutions and Nehru Yuvak Kendras.

4.2.4 Efforts are being made to secure progressive increase in coverage of districts under TLCs in the educationally backward States which will simultaneously ensure mobilsation and participation of girls and women in the literacy programmes.

4.2.5 Other steps to increase women's participation in educational process and female literacy include nation wide gender sensitization programme of educational personnel. This will cover educational administrators, teachers and teacher-educators. Complementary to this strategy would be media campaigns and parental awareness programmes for generating a positive climate for girls' education. Mobilisation of women's groups would be intensified around basic issues of women's empowerment and girl's education.

4.2.6 A new initiative in girls' education is operationalisation of the scheme for assistance to voluntary organisations for strength- ening boarding/hostel facilities for girl students of the secondary/higher secondary schools. During VIIIth Plan it is proposed to cover 3,580 girls under the Scheme.

Mahila Samakhya

4.3.1 Provision of educational opportunities for women has been an important part of the national endeavour in the field of education since India's independence. Though these endeavours did yield signif- icant results, gender disparities persist with uncompromising tenaci- ty, more so in rural areas and among disadvantaged communities. The National Policy on Education, 1986 saw education as an agent that could bring about basic change in the status of women. To quote "In order to neutralize the accumulated distortions of the past, there will be a well-conceived edge in favour of women. The National Educa- tion System will play a positive, interventionist role in the empower- ment of women.... the removal of women's illiteracy and obstacles inhibiting their access to, and retention in, elementary education will receive overriding priority through provision of special support services, setting of time targets, and effective monitoring. " Formu- lated in pursuance to the National Policy on Education, 1986; a pro- gramme called Mahila Samakhya or Women's Equality through Education was designed.

4.3.2 A Dutch-assisted project, Mahila Samakhya, which literally means women's equality through education, is a women's empowerment project which does not aim at service delivery but seeks to bring about a change in women's perception about themselves and that of society in regard to women's `traditional roles'. It endeavours to create an environment for women to seek knowledge and information in order to make

informed choices and create circumstances in which women can learn at their own pace and rhythm. The centrality of education in the struggle to achieve equality is an important focus of Mahila Samakhya.

4.3.3 The nodal point around which the programme devolves is the village level "Mahila Sangha" or women's collective, which constitutes an easily accessible forum for women to discuss problems relating to their daily routine such as child care, health, fuel, fodder, drinking water, education; problems related to their status, role within the society and in the family; and problems related to their self-image as women. These village women's groups set out their own agenda for education and collective action. They try to seek solutions to their problems by initiating action and pressurising the block and district structures to respond.

4.3.4 At least two women from each village work as activators with the women's collective, and help to catalyse discussion and action. The process is helped along by a `sahayogini' or facilitator who is a local women trained by the programme to facilitate and coordinate the activities of about 10 `Sanghas'. Their primary functions are tuned to the needs of these collectives by way of providing information, support and guidance when required, and to act as a link between village level activities and the district implementation unit of the programme. The district unit shoulders the overall responsibilities for the programme at the district level and comprises women with experience in the field of women's development. It also provides resource support for specific inputs like education, child care, health etc.

4.3.5 At the state level an autonomous registered society is set up. An empowered body, it takes all decisions on the management and financial aspects of the programme. A State Project Director oversees the programme at the state level. The state office provides a facili- tative atmosphere for the conduct of the programme, the necessary resource support for the functional areas of the project and arranges for the inter-district linkages of the programme so as to create a wider network for the women's movement. At the national level the programme is coordinated by the Project Director. Guidance from a national level resource group of eminent women is provided to the programme.

4.3.6 Over the last four years the project has had a visible impact in the villages covered. Presently, the programme is being implemented in 15 districts, spread over four states of Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh. So far, approximately 1752 villages have been covered under the programme. Women have been able to address themselves to problems like access to drinking water, payment of minimum wages, access to health services, ensuring reserva- tions in the Jawahar Rozgar Yojana, functioning of the village schools, children's participation in education and take up issues on domestic and social violence.

4.3.7 Mahila Samakhya has played a noteworthy role in the Total Literacy Campaigns in the districts of Gujarat, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. In Karnataka, the focus of attention of Mahila Samakhya has been on stoppage of the evil system of "Devadasis" health care and in Uttar Pradesh, the central issue has been drinking water and non- formal education. In Andhra Pradesh, Mahila Samakhya is addressing the issues of social justice and access to Government schemes. In Gujarat development of thrift societies amongst rural women and lit- eracy are the more prominent issues.