Assistant Professor BHASKAR
JYOTI HAZARIKA
Furkating College,Golaghat,Assam
INTRODUCTION:
Indira Gandhi said,
“Education is a liberating force and in our age it is also a democratizing
force, cutting across the barriers of caste and class, smoothing our
inequalities imposed by birth and other circumstances.
Human life which is
the best creation of god, has got two aspects. The biological and sociological
or cultural, while the former is maintained and transmitted by food and
reproduction, the later is preserved and transmitted by education.
In the Rig Veda
there is no instance where the birth of a girl was considered inauspicious. In
a particular case daughters were regarded to heaven and earth. Education was an
important feature in the upbringing of the girl child. The educated girls were
regarded highly. Vedic literature praises scholarly daughters and says, “A girl
also should be brought up and educated with great effort and care.”
Vedas occupied a
very important place in the Indian life. During the Vedic age women were give
full status with men. They were honoured and respected in society. Therefore,
women education was at its peak.
During the post
Vedic period women were deprived of the social and religious rights.
Ultimately, the position of women in the society fell down. But an upward trend
again appeared in the status of women during the upanisedic period.
Women education
during the Buddhist period was at its lowest ebb. But due to the insistance of
Buddha’s dear pupil Anand, He (Buddha) had permitted women in the Viharas with
many restrictions and reservations. It should however, be noted that what even
education had been imparted, it not only helped to raise the standard of
women’s character and intellect generally but also produced a number of learned
women of high caliber who guided the society in the fields of religion and
philosophy.
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During the Muslim
rule in India Pardah system was observed quite strictly. Therefore, girls’ were
not allowed to go to a Madrasa for receiving higher education. Only the royal
princesses and ladies and daughters of very rich people could receive education
and education of women as such was completely ignored.
However in the
British period there was revival of interest of women education in India
During this period
there was revival of interest of women education in India India
More emphasis was
laid upon women education in wood’s Despatch of 1854 Calcutta
After independence
women were granted constitutional status.
National council for women education was constituted in 1959 by this Govt.
of India. The Govt. of India, Ministry of Education and social welfare
constituted a committee on Sept.
22, 1971 on the status of women.
The United Nations
declared 1975 as the “ International women year” and 1980 as the “Year for
development of women” The 4th world conference on women in Beijing
in 1995 was the largest conference held by the united nations and the
reflection is that women’s equality must be a central component of any attempt
to solve the world’s social economic and political problems.
In India India
The National
Commission for women, a statutory body set up in 1992 under a central Act,
strives to achieve equality and justice women in the all spheres of life.
The 73rd
and 74th constitutional amendment acts, 1993 mark historic events in
the advancement of the Indian women as they ensure 1/3rd of the
total seats for women in all elected offices of local bodies in rural and urban
areas.
From time to time
the Govt. of India took several steps through different programmes. Adult and
non-formal education has helped to increase female literacy.
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Objectives of the study :
1) To
establish that why the education is needed for empowerment of women.
2) It
is education that reveals the latent qualities and potentialities of women and
enables her to understand self and the environment surrounding her.
3) Education
sharpens the intellect, widens the vision, helps in the wholesome and balanced
development of man and above all it leads to social, economic and political
development of a nation.
4) Education
is directly related to occupational mobility and the subsequent improvement in
economic status and in the other hand, it forms and element of social change.
Women with higher education and better employment are respected more in the
society.
5) Education
helps women belonging to lower status of the society to up in the social scale
and attain a high social position in the society.
The concept of women empowerment
:
The concept of women
empowerment was introduced at the third international women’s conference at Nairobi
The tenth five year
plan “Empowerment of women” as agents of social change and development was
continued in the tenth plan.
The 11th
plan approach has to priorities five key focus areas and also the 11th
plan will follow the following five fold strategy -
1) Economic
empowerment, with special focus on women in agriculture and on the effects of
Globalization.
2) Social
empowerment and engendering social change.
3) Political
empowerment to facilitate entry and effective functioning of women in
parliament, PRIs and in premier government services:
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4) Strengthening
mechanism for effective implementation of women related legislations;
5) Creating
institutional mechanisms for gender mainstreaming and strengthening delivery
mechanisms for effective implementation of women related programmes.
Curricular for women :
Our curricular
should form an awareness programme for the illiterate and grown up women who
are out of the educational system. The curricular in this regard can be termed
as life skill education as it develops the capacities and skills inevitable for
a successful life. In the modern society to cut one’s safe path amidst
violence’s and atrocities. It makes a holistic attempt to enable women search
for their true “identity” and discover their own space physical, intellectual,
psychological and work space.
Life skill Education:
It is based on the
principle of human rights that every girl has an equal right to live a life of
dignity on this planet. The components of life skills are –
1) Personality
development.
2) Stress
management.
3) Health
and sexuality
4) Interpersonal
relationship
5) Value
foundation.
6) Social
awareness.
7) Legal
rights.
Education can certainly play a positive
role in the improvement of women’s status. Women’s empowerment process which
does not aim to deliver services, but seeks to bring about changes in women’s
perspective about themselves and that of society in regard to women’s
traditional roles. Women through education will be able to liberate themselves
from their own psychological and social constraints. It enables them to have
self respect and have better self image, frees from a sense of dependency and
powerlessness. By education women, they become emotionally, socially and
economically empowered.
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In
the programme of action of the International conference held in Cairo
Women
constitute half of the total population of the world. Progress of any society
is largely dependent upon the condition of women. In the recent years,
empowerment of women is recognised as the centrals issue in determining the
status of women. At the individual level, empowerment is seen as building
confidence, insight and understanding as well as developing personal skills.
Development of individuality is the basic concern of empowerment process. For
women, empowerment involves enabling
women to hold legitimate positions
of authority and to
influence others. In our society women constitute the marginalized section. So
empowering women implies enabling them to find ways so that they are able to
fight with the imbalances in the society and there by participate equally in
the ongoing process of development.
It is seen that a
large amount of women are still illiterate and are less concerned for their
rights. Socio cultural religious attitudes and beliefs, household poverty act
as barrier to the education of women and in keeping them away from attending
schools, colleges, literacy classes or in continuing learning.
In this respect
education has acquired immense importance in empowering women through capacity
building of women. Education for women in particular in one of the essential
tools not only for ensuring gender equality but also in the process of
empowering them so that women can fully contribute to society. Education gives
people not just qualification to get jobs, but more importantly it creates
opportunities and choices for people so that they are empowered in their lives
and they are able to avail the opportunities in public as well as in private
life. Education is the corner stone of women’s empowerment because it enables
them to respond to opportunities and challenges and there by changing their
lives. It also helps to change some of the societal attitudes and behaviour
towards women. Education helps to improve the quality of life and living.
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Educate a man you
educate an individual where as educate a woman and you educate a family.
Jawaharlal Nehru said that “You can tell the condition of a nation by looking
the status of its women.”
Education should be
made a catalytic force in changing the societal attitudes towards women. Thus
the entire education system should be revitalised restructured so that it can
awaken the divine in women by making an all round development of body mind and
soul of the women as human beings and thus bring development and happiness to
our society.
Conclusion:
At the end we have
realised that both men and women can develop the society as well as the nation.
Women should try to earn education in their lives. Without education women will
not be able to uplift their position as well as their legal rights. Through
education women can get empowerment and to discover their ‘Identity’ their own
space. Women have an equal right to live a full life on this earth just as men
and all girls should be made aware of their rights as human rights.
References:
1. Bhattacharya M.Y. Day
& Dev Goswami G.D. : Women
Education :
Its problem and
prospect in Recent Era – A special emphasis to the state of Assam
2. Bhosle, Smriti : ‘Education for
empowerment and
development of
women’ University News, Vol- 47, No -02
(Jan’ 09).
3.
Chaube Dr. S. P. : History
of Indian Education Pub, by,
Vinod
Pustak Mondir Agra
4.
Giri, Dr. (Mrs) V. Mohini : “Emancipation
and empowerment of women, Pub by – Gyan Publishing House New Delhi.
5. Sign Dr. Dipali and : “The Empowerment
of Indian
Dr.
Nafces A. Ansari Women with
Reference to five year
prans’ Kurukshetra, Vol – 56, No.11
(Sept. 2008).
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