Percentage of women in curriculum committees in India remains poor, says report
The Status of Women in India report finds that women author far less content in school textbooks. Even though female literacy rate has increased, gender gap in education remains.
A report published by Drishti Stree Prabodhan Kendra, a women’s studies centre reports that the percentage of participation of women, in curriculum committees is “poor, non-significant and non-influential”.
In the report titled The Status of Women in India, observations reveal that there are few women writers of chapters in social studies books. Only 28 percent of the content in textbooks of Classes 6 to 8 was authored by women.
The same was observed in Sanskrit textbooks where textbooks of Classes 6 to 8 had only 16 percent content written by women. Class 9 textbooks saw only 6.8 percent women-authored content.
Report suggests that textbooks for Social Sciences, Sanskrit have far less representation of women writing the content.
In History textbooks, the report concludes that women’s contributions do not find the deserved recognition. The report invokes the examples of Zalkari, a friend of Rani Laxmibai, and Jijabai, the mother of Shivaji.
The centre which studies the condition of women and prepares reports and recommendations on women, conducted across 29 states and interviewed as many as 74,095 for the study. Of these, 43,255 women were above 18 years.
Women included in the study came from diverse backgrounds such as scientists, education, teachers, women from slums, agriculture, domestic workers, and homemakers, among others. The study also included women from tribal communities and conflict-ridden areas. Three key parameters for analysis in the study were health, education and employment status.
Other findings of the report pertain to female literacy rate, Aadhaar cards, bank accounts, and workplace sexual harassment. According to the study, female literacy rate of 64.6 percent as observed in the Census of 2011 has increased to 79.63 percent.
However, the gap does not indicate a decrease in the gender gap in the education sector. The report suggests that marriage and financial difficulties were stated as major reasons for women discontinuing their education.
The study claims that 90.62 percent of women surveyed had an Aadhaar card and 79 percent of women had individual bank accounts. The study also reported that one-tenth of working women surveyed had faced sexual harassment at the workplace.
The women reported that most of their workplaces did not have internal complaints committees, which according to Supreme Court guidelines is a requirement at every workplace.
(Edited by Saheli Sen Gupta)
