Tag: GIRLS

In a world where we are well aware that superheroes are mostly boys and princesses are girls, it becomes difficult to model leadership for young women.

The overarching under-representation of the transgender community coupled with a sustained sense of ridicule and mockery even where there is the slightest of attention paid, has made most of our school curriculum insensitive, non-empathetic and unfair to the transgender community.

In a recent report the NCW investigated the condition of 25 shelter homes for women in states like Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Odisha and Karnataka only to find them in pathetic condition and without the minimum facilities.

A school teacher in Raipur warns her female students against wearing western attires and makeup as this makes their being raped justified according to her. Sexism and misogynistic mind-sets must urgently be condemned in our schools if we are to fight oppression and backwardness.

Blatant sexism can be seen in our institutions for higher learning even today as we witness discriminatory rules for girls living in hostels on campuses like BHU. With the onset of popular protest against such derogatory practices against women the time has come for us to restructure our educational priorities and make learning institutions egalitarian spaces.

According to the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), which is the only annual survey of its kind in India, depicting rural children’s learning and enrollment level district and state wise; the enrollment percentage of children in India halved from 2007 till 2014. Of the rest, the reading and arithmetic skills had lowered in these seven years. Uttar Pradesh is one of those states where these numbers have gone considerably down. On the flip side, U.P is also the home to India’s first ever English Medium, all girls, agriculture based primary school. The article that follows is an account on what it signifies for our times.