Title: The Role of Education in the Empowerment of Women in a District of West Bengal, India: Reflections on a Survey of Women
Abstract: Abstract This article aims to probe the role of education in the empowerment of women in the district of Malda, West Bengal, India. In an exhaustive survey comprising forty two villages, the article tries to unearth the status of women, attitude towards girls' education in society, problems hindering the education of women, the importance of marriage in women's life affecting education as well as the empowerment of women. The article also highlights that educated and economically empowered women have said a firm 'no' to the prevalent malice of the dowry, thus directly bearing the fruit of economic empowerment in society of Malda district of West Bengal. Finally some recommendations have been made to eradicate the practice of intra-household and social discrimination of girl child and women. Empowerment through education has emerged as the only way to put an end to the horrors of dowry, as established by the survey. Keywords: Women, discrimination, dowry, education, economic empowerment, survey Introduction The empowerment of women in India has been obstructed for centuries owing to various reasons amongst which the initial blow was in the form of depriving women from basic educational facilities. Beginning with the Rig Vedic period (Singh, 2004) Indian women were denied political powers. The denial of many basic rights continued to plunge downward during the later Vedic period, with further plummeting through forthcoming centuries. During the eighteenth century women suffered from several handicaps like female infanticide, sati (2), purdah (3), child marriage, illiteracy and subsequently forced child widowhood in the 19th century. Women were treated no better than domestic animals. Moved by this extreme plight, great social reformers like Raja Rammohan Roy, Iswarchandra Vidyasagar, Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa, Swami Vivekananda, Swami Dayananda Saraswati, M.G. Ranade, D.K.Karve and Mahatma Gandhi were in the forefront, fighting against social atrocities toward women (Jha and Pujari, 1998). Women discovered their own potential and played an equal part in India's struggle for freedom (Barua, 2003). Many women came to be accepted as great patriots in their own rights. The freedom struggle of India was the platform where women again proved themselves. Women's participation in the revolutionary movement (Mehta, 2004) was significant even when they were deprived of basic human rights in men's world. The list of women in India who contributed to the movement for equality is enormous. To name just a few, Sarojini Naidu, Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay, Vijaylaxmi Pundit, Aruna AsafAli, and Rajkumari Amrit Kaur took up the fight on several fronts. (Jha and poojary, 1998) The preamble to the Constitution of India promises full equality to all citizens in all respect. Women's development saw a reflection in the Indian constitution wherein laws were enacted to eradicate the social evil of inequality, five-year plans and voluntary actions by women, state sponsored programmes like rural Mahila Mandals and local self government, participation in social and women's welfare programmes through voluntary action and finally the demand for reservation in political institutions (Pandey, 2002) Literacy among women In independent India, illiteracy is the second most important problem following poverty. Female literacy rates are very low nationally. A look at the statistics relating to female literacy reveals a grim picture. Though the female literacy rate has progressively increased from 8.86% in 1951 to 15.34% in 1961 to 21.97% in 1971 to 29.75% in 1981 to 39.42% in 1991, it is still below the desired level (Maitr and Sinha, 1993). Comparing these rates to male literacy is 63.68%, it is clear that female literacy is neglected. This gap ultimately contributes to the subordination of women and greater dowry (4) demand in the marriage market. Among the literate women only a handful of women obtain their education in order to acquire economic independence; for the majority, literate women receive an education only to become more eligible in for marriage (Johnson and Johnson, 2001). …
Publication Year: 2008
Publication Date: 2008-11-01
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 5
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