In a patriarchal society, women have faced a social disadvantage that has hindered them from openly accessing the resources that men have. One of their points of contention was their education. This can be seen in the past as well as in the present scenario of education in India. The right to education is a fundamental right of every citizen of India and no one should be deprived of it.
Women’s education plays a major role in a nation’s overall development. Not only does it support the development of half the human resources, but it also aims to improve the quality of life at home and in the community. Educated women not only tend to support their children’s education but also provide them with better guidance. Also, educated women can contribute to reducing infant mortality and population growth.
Though most women in India had access to education in the Vedic era, this right was gradually lost. However, there was a revival of interest in women’s education during the British period and various socio-religious movements based on women’s education in India occurred during this period.
We cannot discuss women’s education in India without mentioning the first female teacher of the first women’s school in India, Savitribai Phule. She and her husband, Jyotirao Phule, fought for women’s rights throughout their lives. At a time when women’s education was looked down on, she ignited a spark that led to a fight for educational equality.
Although significant progress has been made in literacy and education, the broader situation still remains unfavourable to women. At the turn of the twentieth century, the country as a whole was largely illiterate, with only 5.3% of the population literate out of which only 0.60 % of women were literate. The picture was not much better in 1951, the first Census was taken four years after independence.
According to the 2011 Census, India has a literacy rate of 73.80%, with males having a rate of 82.14% and females having a rate of 65.46%. Literacy is not distributed evenly throughout India. There are 12 states and union territories where female literacy is lower than the national average. According to these statistics, nearly half of India’s female population is still illiterate and this is a significant number. It should also be noted that the majority of these women live in rural and tribal regions. Another thing to keep in mind is that the majority of women in the literate bracket have completed only primary-level education. As we move to higher education levels, the number of women decreases.
The female literacy rate in urban areas is 64%, while rural women’s literacy rate is almost half of it, at 31%. Many states have significant rural-urban differences in female literacy. This low literacy rate in rural India has a negative impact not only on women’s lives but also on the economic development of their families and the country as a whole.
One of the major causes of India’s low female literacy rate is the negative attitude of parents towards their daughter’s education. The education of male children is given priority in most families. Parents do not consider girls to be earning members of their families from the start because, after marriage, they must leave their parents’ homes.
As a result, their education is regarded as a waste of both money and time. Poverty is the root cause of numerous complications in India and this includes low female literacy rates. Also, parents aren’t ready to send girls to school as the lack of easy access to school in most rural areas. Even if schools are accessible, they severely lack basic facilities. The lack of female teachers is another obstacle to women’s education in India.
India has been taking active steps to improve the status of women’s education both before and after independence. Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan has come up with many schemes for inclusive as well as exclusive growth of Indian education as a whole, including schemes to help foster the growth of female education. After independence and mostly in the last few decades, the proportion of women students has continuously increased. Women’s literacy rates grew from 8.86% in 1951, to 29.75% in 1981, to 39.29% in 1991, to 54.16% in 2001, to 65.46% in 2011.
As a nation, we have come a long way but there is still a long way to go. Any move forward in ensuring fair access to high-quality education is an accomplishment. And, as history has shown, every effort counts.
