Education for women had always been an area of criticism, rather a subject of criticism in our Nation that basically has a patriarchal social setup where men since time immemorial had enjoyed an upper hand while women forever were cornered, kept in confines of the four walls with society proclaiming a strict compartmentalization of manly and womanly duties. Men's domain was the outer world, the administration of kingdom in the times of kings and queens or say the job if you take only a decade or two back while the woman's domain was the family, rearing up children and managing household chores.
Women's Education & Indian social setup at its backdrop
In our male-dominated society it is held that the women's brain isn't capable enough to carry anything more than that and thus Women education was never encouraged in our country. But with the waves of Feminism and Westernization swelling and surging all across the globe India too was brought under its sweep and so today luckily most of the 21st century Indian women are highly educated, professionally competent. Many of them are into high paying jobs and today the Indian Business magazines too are really proud to showcase some of the country's Award winning business entrepreneurs.
On the path of Change
The society's outlook towards women's education is changing bit by bit. This change of outlook towards women's education is actually a part of a massive change of outlook towards the women in general. However this change is yet to reach the remote parts of rural India. The Government of India has taken countless initiatives in the course of its many Five Year Plans to promote Women's education and thus today our country is moving towards a better future for the women, with the many Nari Siksha Yojnas or financial educational help schemes for girls or programs like the Mahila Sankhaya Programme, etc. In the cities along with Co-ed schools often you would find all girls schools too which indicate that things really have changed for the better today for our women.
The Courses Women get to study today:
In the present times after completing the 10th and 12th standard Board exams girls can get admission in college and then go for a post graduation degree at a University. There are three Main streams: Arts, Science and Commerce. Furthermore they can pursue higher education like M-phil, Doctorate and so on. Several professional diploma courses can also be opted by them. MBBS, LLB, BE, IAS, IPS and other such streams which were previously thought to be All-Men's domain are now being largely opted for by the women of our country. Even for competitive exams like banking, railways women can enroll in educational courses without any bars and pass with great scores. These favorable changes really hint at the fact that our women our moving from the darkness of illiteracy to the brightness of literacy.
Some Great Men dreamt to educate the Indian women long back:
The roots of the education that our women are enjoying today however date back to the times of the British Rule and that was the period when Indian women for the first time were introduced to the winds of the Western culture. As time rolled on, India got its independence and some significant achievements were obtained in the direction of women's education and of course one such landmark achievement was the year 1878 when female graduates for the first time could obtain an admission into the University of Calcutta for any of the Degree courses, the first University to do that during that era. Many of the notable visionaries and social reformers of our country like Ishwar Chandra Vidya Sagar advocated women education; opened up schools for the girls and taught only the girls there.
Looking forward to 100% woman literacy for an Utopian Nation:
Today in this 21st century whatever beneficial results our women are reaping it's because of the great dreams these great men had once seen for our women. In this context it is worthwhile to quote the words of the very eminent Ghanaian educator and scholar Dr. James Emmanuel Kwegyir Aggrey who remarked, "If you educate a man, you educate an individual. If you educate a woman, you educate a nation." Indeed a literate mom can give her children all the basic knowledge from the very childhood and if every house of India has a 'literate' mom, it won't take much for our Nation to become an out-and-out educated one. We are all looking forward and waiting wistfully for that 'Utopia'!
