1. SAFETY AND EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN IN INDIA
- INDERJEET KAUR CHAWLA
SATYAM COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
„Women are the real architects of the society‟, yes indeed they are! Indian mythology describes
women as Lakshmi, Saraswati, Annapurna, Durga and many others. Women play a very
important role in the society; they are the backbone of the house and the social dynamics. In
Indian context, it is a well known fact that women are primarily responsible for the upbringing,
values, education and emotional stability of the child. How can a seed, which does not have any
of the above, produce a beautiful and healthy flower?
The world and India is changing, we need dynamic, progressive, emotionally stable and
independent citizens with a backbone of values. We need generation who are not only
knowledge worthy but have a good character. Mother the most important mentor in a child‟s life
for a large number of years, should be the role model for the child. She should be independent in
terms of economy, emotions and must have a good decision making power, so that she can
understand and guide her children on various prospects of a situation. All these come with
experiencing the real world. How can a female be able to do that, by just sitting at home, without
having a source of income, and opportunity to show her creativity and groom her?
As Osho has rightfully said, don‟t try to change a rose to a Lotus- Accept rose as rose and lotus
as lotus.
In an attempt to make female economically independent, we are expecting her to work like a
man. Our working cultures do not provide a system where a female with children can work part-
time. To empower females of the urban sector, it is high need of the hour, to provide part-time
job culture in the MNC‟s and government sector. This would ensure the professional females to
work and also maintain work-life balance. It should be made must to have day –care centers and
activity centers near the office premises.
In the urban sector in nuclear families, both man and women have been working, leading to high
level of dependency on the domestic help for cooking and child care. Due to the economic and
cultural differences, it leads to a lot of crimes, emotional and cultural loss. Old age couples who
are living alone, it is a big challenge and risk to have these domestic helpers for cooking and
other tasks.
A step for developing an organization is needed; wherein, the domestic help women can go in an
organized and scrutinized environment and prepare meals and eatables. These organizations can

2. have centers in localities, like mother dairy, so that the freshness and hygiene can be maintained.
The quality ingredients and hygiene can be controlled. The meals can be delivered at various
places. The domestic help women will not only get employment, but the organization can play a
very vital role in making this women aware of hygiene, basic education and their rights. The
employment in such organizations can be part-time or full time.
Experience plays a very important role in developing the overall personality of women. A
country with hostility of crimes such as rape, child abuse and kidnapping would lead to fear and
non-acceptance of the women in the society.
A society fighting with lowering sex- ratio, these signs are not good. Acceptance, safety and
empowerment of women in the society would enhance the sex-ratio. As a mother of two
daughters, safety is the biggest hurdle in the growth and empowerment of my daughters. I would
want my daughters to grow in a safe and positive environment. At the end I would like to
conclude with few lines.
Let my hand rise for giving a blessing,
Not for asking money.
Let my eyes express my enthusiasm,
Not fear.
Let me weave the family with values and emotions,
Not obligation.
I am the creator of the divine,
He created me full, and empowered me to take
Care of myself and others.
Just accept me with respect.

3. INDIA SHINING.. IS IT?
- BAHNI MAJUMDAR
B.Ed.
SATYAM COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
India is the birth place of many great souls. It is only due to their unconditional love and selfless
contribution of many that India has attained its glory and emerged as a developing nation. We
are proud to be the citizens of this democratic nation. But if we see the current scenario
prevailing in India, we cannot overlook the serious issues faced by the common public of our
country. Time has come to inspect certain issues in order to modify them. So the moot question
is how to bring about the change to rectify the major problems faced by our nation?
I firmly believe that change is possible only through education. Education is the only weapon to
bring about drastic change. I would like to state about the status of Primary Education in India.
Here I need to pinpoint the Annual Status of Education Report 2011, where we see the students‟
enrolment in rural India has risen to 96.7% in the year 2011, but there has been a decline in the
students‟ basic reading levels, arithmetic levels and academic levels. Many schools are set up in
rural India with the notion of improving the literacy rate. But the fact is that we have not achieve
the desired goal yet. There are certain factors which are creating obstacle in the path of achieving
the estimated target. The possible reason is the lack of awareness among the uneducated section
about the importance of education. The students in rural areas cannot avail the facilities provided
in good schools. Schools are no doubt set up in every nook and corner, but they do not have the
infrastructure that will enhance the quality of education. Students are getting enrolled in the
schools but attendance is less,more cases of dropout of students before reaching standard V,less
number of female students compared to male students and the poor parents are reluctant to send
their children to school as they force them to work to earn their livelihood. It is really very
difficult to change the attitude of the masses.
We need to think about some realistic steps to deal with it!
Schools and colleges can take up the initiative by visiting the remote schools, counselling and
motivating the students to avail the opportunity of getting educated.The school teachers should
be given certain incentives so that they feel motivated to inspire the young minds. The human
resource can be the students from different schools from urban areas, teachers from different
schools and colleges; they can form small groups and go to the remote areas to create awareness
among the students and the parents about the importance of education. We need to eliminate
illiteracy from our country and need to imbibe good values among the children at the school
level so that they can grow up as responsible citizens.

4. I would like to highlight the issue of equality and empowerment of women in India. The
educated women folk enjoy equal rights with the men and they are competent to stand at par with
the male population of our country. Women in India have attained a newer height in every sphere
of life. People talk about empowerment of women as they have realized the inherent potential of
a female to take up the responsibility, her inborn qualities that can be enhanced and can be
utilized for the well-being of the society. Here I am referring the popular UNESCO slogan:
“Educate a man and you educate an individual, educate a women and you educate a family.”
We have no doubt attained literacy among many women in our country but we need to go ahead
to educate them. The educated women section of the society knows how to use their voice in
times of crisis. But the women who represent the underprivileged section are still struggling to
survive in our patriarchal society. In fact various organizations stand up to uplift their condition
as well but stronger measures should be taken to develop and enrich the voice of every woman.
Many women still today are ignorant when it comes to exercise their rights and they are not
aware of their pitiable condition. We can create awareness only through education. It is really
very shocking to see the level of violence inflicted towards women. Incident of domestic
violence, sexual abuse on minor girls, marital rape, gang rape are occurring every day. Some
cases come into limelight and some are not registered.Violence in different form has engulfed us
from different angle.The fear factor is diminishing from the mind of the culprits.
Cases of corruption and violence are increasing day by day.Even the judiciary is unable to
provide timely justice to the victims. It seems that the offenders are given the freedom to do what
they prefer to do. It is really apt to say “justice delayed is justice denied”. It takes a prolong time
to provide justice to the people and the delay triggers distrust and frustration among the common
people. Now it is the need of the hour to find out the immediate solution for the delay in the
court proceedings.
In this regard, I would suggest making this issue as one of the important agenda in 2014 election
because the law and order of a country matters a lot to create a peaceful environment. According
to me, if there are lot of pending cases, priority should be given to the serious cases where the
evidences prove the criminal to be guilty. For example the rape victims should get justice within
a specific time period when the criminals involved are caught and are proved to be guilty so that
people regain trust on the judiciary. We need to understand the associated issues that drag the
entire proceedings and the victims are left with trauma and mental agony. We need to revisit the
prevailing law and need to have a brain storming session so that contemporary outlook towards
right and privilege of women can be worked out. Any offender for committing any heinous crime
such as murder, rape or any such crime must be condemned to penalty within a period of 6-9
months so that faith on judiciary is reinstated. The people who have power and authority in the
judiciary should look into the matter to provide prompt action to grant timely justice to the
needy. Even the judges and the lawyers should have the commitment to serve the nation and
committed towards their profession.

5. Another suggestion from my side is that when students take up Law to pursue a career they
should develop a sense of responsibility to work with honest intention. The Law colleges should
take up the initiative to imbibe good values among the students. Here also value education plays
a pivotal role in nurturing theyoung people to work with utmost dedication. The budding lawyers
should only avail his/her degree, when he/she will fight such cases free of cost or at a minimal
cost, set by the Govt., for a period of at least two years. There has to be an incentive to those
lawyers, who handles such cases.
In the end, I fully believe that, our society has given all the rights to the women and today we
must take pride of being a woman and make sure we continuously strive for our rights. Gender
bias still exists and we know, we have all the wherewithal to overcome this menace.

6. PRIMARY EDUCATION IN RURAL INDIA
Education is a concurrent issue and under the Indian Constitution, education is
a fundamental right of each and every child. Primary education is the initial phase of the
education process. It works as the base for life. The question is whether each child is
getting desired and expected foundation of education ? The answer is 'No'; only a few
get the desired basic education. Seventy percent of the Indian population resides in
rural areas and are denied basic rights, needs and requirements. Can education solve
these genuine problems for them ? Yes ! In the long run, definitely. But first , we need to
understand and analyze the present education system and then add the work 'Quality'
to it. 'Quality' education at the elementary level can spur the development process.
Few years back, I had the opportunity to work with an esteemed international
not-for-profit organization in the Bahraich district of Uttar Pradesh. The project assigned
to me was on Girl Education and Gender Equality in state-run schools. This project
allowed me to critically assess the current state of our rural education systems. Not all
schools were poor; there were also good schools and some were near pathetic. After a
few months, my assessment was that in the poorer schools, the following factors
affected the quality of education
 Ability of Teachers: The government has allocated funds and put in place policies
for the recruitment of the best teachers but more often, these teachers lack self
motivation and empathy for their students. Most teachers are merely satisfied
with a regular monthly paycheck.
 School and support Infrastructure: Although, state and central government’s plan

7. and provide yearly budgets for developing, renovating and improving schooling
facilities, the budget is usually not fully utilized. In many cases, budget outlays
are misappropriated or wasted away on unnecessary items. It is surprising that
there is no budget allocation for new technology introduction in rural schools
whereas this is fast becoming a norm in urban schools
 Outlook of parents and society: In spite of knowledge of the importance of good
education, very poor families do not send their children even to state-run schools
due to monetary constraints where they are sent to fields for work or they
stayback at home to assist by looking after their siblings. So-called powerful local
'elites' also prevent students from going to school as they think that they would
lose clout if everyone gets educated.
 Location of school premises: School buildings that are not in a central location in
the village or have a poor approach are usually not preferred by students, their
parents and definitely not the school staff and teachers. Such schools face low
student count and high absentee-ism.
 Overburdening of teachers with paperwork: Agreed that at the district and state
level, routine checks and visits are made to ensure the rural education machinery
is in motion and is doing what it is supposed to do. But this also leads to
additional overhead in terms of paper work and record maintenance, which
invariably gets handed down to the already depleted teaching staff. If our
teachers are busy preparing for the next official or political visitor, will they have
enough time to prepare for their students ? No.
The above may not be all the problems plaguing our rural education system, but
they definitely require resolution if the education system is to be made better. A parallel
education system cannot be successful as it cannot cover the length and breadth of the

8. country. Improvements need to be made primarily through State action with the support,
private players and participation of parents and non government organizations. For
example, while the government can plan a budget with focus on improving
infrastructure, accessibility and technology, non government players can help to provide
motivated teachers, suitable curriculum and tailor-made pedagogy. Private players can
provide technology that can improve efficiency in routine procedures, monitoring and
class room aids.
Government needs to make the job for teaching more lucrative so that the cream among
the eligible candidates may opt for the responsible job of teaching. The standards of job
need to be at par with the other well paying jobs.
Policies of government like RTE (Right To Education) needs to be implemented through
concerted efforts from private schools and government to educate the affluent and poor
peer both academically and socially.
The curriculum of the rural areas should also be customized to include the local
essence culturally and economically to make it more relevant and useful. For example
Basics of agriculture and vocational training will be more useful
Not that, nothing is being done along these lines, various initiatives are being taken at
all levels but what needs to be seen is how much of these are sustained over the long
term and how much benefit actually rolls down to the desired beneficiaries.