Access to Education

The issue of unequal and inequitable access to education for women is a globally recognised phenomenon. In the case of India, access and enrolment of girls in schools has been a focus of educational policies for decades.

The socialisation of girls in South Asia is rooted in the protection of female sexuality. The micro-level forces entrenched in family, the kin group and culture determine the educational policies, programmes and ability of girls and women to access them (Chanana, 2001). Hasan and Menon (2005) note how low income, widespread poverty, social norms alongside a patriarchal ideology that prioritises marriage and domesticity for women inhibit girls’ education, coercing them to drop out of schools.

Many Indian educational policies like the University Education Commission (1949), National Commission for Women (1959), National Policy on Education (1986), District Primary Education Project (2000), National Curriculum Framework (2005) and the New Education Policy (2020) have highlighted the importance of empowering women and recommended ways for education to be accessible to women in the country. The recommendations often stress ‘access’, negating the other factors that may hinder girls’ education. Girls bring the expectations of fitting into culturally assigned roles propounded by the family and society while struggling to ‘access’ educational opportunities.

Focus on ‘access’ alone is problematic because it becomes a way to achieve the arithmetic balance and boost enrolment rates on paper, as pointed out by (Kumar, 2017: 15). “For the state, equality between the sexes means the presence of boys and girls in the classroom. Their differing experiences of education are not acknowledged in the State’s documents”. During implementation, policies and interventions seldom provide an appropriate learning environment, which has kept many girls, especially from the socio-economically disadvantaged groups, away from schools. This essay tries to draw upon the understanding that gender is about women and operates in relation to class, caste, religion, and region.

Continuities and Shifts in Girls Education 

Chanana (1990), in her paper, explains how by the early twentieth century, girls’ education had become an agenda of social reform in India. However, the major idea behind educating girls revolved around the domesticated role of a woman and ‘enlightened motherhood’. She notes how the early social reformers in the British period propounded the prevalent notions of women’s domestic roles and assured the parents that their daughters would perform their traditional roles better after receiving ‘modern education’. When education itself, which is a potent means of freedom and possible dismantling of oppressive social institutions, is spoken of in the same breath as the one role that has confined women to the realm of mere domesticity for centuries. She is assumed to be existing for the role of the reproducer, which is an immense disservice to the girls of our country who are already plagued by the cruelty of cultural imprinting (Kumar, 2017). Manjrekar (2020) states how instrumental views about education help girls perform their ‘roles’ in the family, community and nation based on an unquestioned acceptance of women as biological and cultural reproducers in society. 

The National Education Policy (2020) propounds that women will shape social mores – in this and future generations (p. 26). This, in turn, foregrounds the role of women as essentially reproductive. This implies that in the present context, girlhood in India is a preparatory stage for womanhood; the lives of girls are culturally constructed so that they may grow to consummately assume the roles of wife and mother. The paradigm shifts in girls education in India indicate the rigidity in the perspective of the society where a woman is contoured into a stereotypical idea of how her life is envisioned, therefore, adversely affecting her education. 

The lens through which we perceive girls’ education is greatly influenced by the ideological underpinnings of the State reflected in the policies. The gendered character of policies can be reflected in the way interventions like Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao Yojana are adapted to suit the local needs and structural relations. It often tries to navigate the existing power relations and focus on delivering the programme, i.e. equipping girls alone to fend for their education by negotiating with her family and community.

Girls education and NEP 2020: the interlinkages

In our opinion, the State’s major agenda behind educating girls is to increase her capacities to perform reproductive processes and mould her for matrimony and motherhood instead of helping her develop into an individual who thinks, reflects, compares and makes choices. The NEP (2020) postulates that an educated woman is beneficial for the wellbeing of the following:

1. Family

• An educated woman turns out to be a good companion in marriage and a better mother by participating in what the man wants.
• An instrument of reproduction; to reproduce family, class, caste and religious beliefs.
• Shape the future generations and endow them with the prescribed social norms.

2. Nation

• Reproduce the workforce for the economy.
• Support men in the family to carry out their duties towards the nation’s development.
• Keep a moral check on the social structures/institutions to maintain the stability of the State by upholding the capitalist system through the sexual division of labour (Menon, 2012).

Conclusion 

The view that women are primarily a national resource strips them of any intrinsic worth. It offers a narrow range of subject positions for girls and women, locating and even objectifying them as mere instruments in the narrative of national progress (Manjrekar, 2003). The subliminal messages of matrimony, motherhood, sexual choice, sexual servitude and unpaid labour through such claims are being communicated to women. The focus on individual achievement,  on girls’ education leading to the education of families and addressing girls as daughters situate them firmly with reference to the family; girls being seen in terms of relational identity, ties and families being central to the nation and its culture. This construction propagates the patriarchal character of families and ignores the individuality of girls from myriad backgrounds.