By Sakshi Gupta
Education is the origin of a progressive society. It is something that without which a human remains only a living being or an animal. Education is considered to be important as it’s a crucial part of life. it is what leads to the success of a being, teaching us how to follow our duties. It teaches humans to change with their environment. From the means of education, people gain the knowledge about rights and wrongs. Some wrongdoings in life are such that need to be punished, things that not everyone knows are punishable. Education is important to learn about such things, for people to grow aware about things that could get them punished and which are morally and humanely wrong.
India houses the world’s largest youth population – 60 crore people under the age of 25 and 28% of the population under the age of 14. This is a major plus point for India as, if utilized appropriately, it could be India’s biggest resource, which is human resource, which could lead the country on the path of success. India is considered as a ‘Developing’ country, where poverty is still a big issue. In such conditions, India has to make sure that the education received by its youth is as needed, to better its economic growth in the future.
Gujarat, a state in the west of India, like every other state has divided its education years into 4 parts, which are – Primary, Upper Primary, Secondary and Higher Secondary. Gujarat ranks on number 9 at the Education Development Index, an index which measures every state’s education and literacy performance. Gujarat’s literacy at rural levels is 62% and 89% at the urban level. But comparatively to other states, Gujarat only invest 14.4% of its expenditure towards education, which is really less.
On the other hand, Kerala, a small state in South West India, is very different from other states. It has the highest literacy rate in the country, at 96.8%, and not just that, a few years ago, it was deemed a fully literate state in the country. Kerala is a model state which has spent its attention as well as expenditure mainly on education, literacy and welfare, due to which Government schools are more popular than private schools in the state. 58.5% of the students are studying in government schools whereas onl7 34.3% are in private schools, which is a good gap.
In the north-eastern state Nagaland, the literacy rate is quite higher than the remaining Indian states. The rate is at 80.11%, in which the literacy rate of males is 83.29% and of females is 76.69%. Education has been given an important place in Nagaland, in which, the education of the student as well as the student is equally important.
If there is to be made a major change in a country, then the first thing that should be changes is its education. After 34 years, In the month of July, the indian government released the new National Education Policy 2020. This policy brings in a lot of changes which were crucial to be brought in with the changing times. With these changes being implied, the future of education and the country will change, with the main focus being on the students’ understanding rather than their marks. Some of the changes which this policy will bring in are:
- Education will be made free until the age of 18, to reduce the number of dropouts.
- The structure of 10+2 will now be changes to 5+3+3+4 so that age based development will be taken care of.
- Students will be taught in their regional language or mother tongue to make understanding and grasping easier. Till then, English will only be taught as a subject.
- The barrier between different streams in higher education will be removed, which will allow the students to choose subjects according to their likings.
- A multiple exit option will be available in universities and colleges. If a student wished to drop out, then his credit score will be deposited in the Academic Bank of Credit, after which, if the student wishes to continue his studies, it would be easier for him to take admission again.
Through this policy, the demand of gender equality will be tried to be fulfilled. Every child has the right to education, whether it be a girl, a boy or any other gender. But gender bias, the partiality between a girl and boy, is still a major problem in India. Girls don’t get as many big and good opportunities as boys as given, because girls are expected to stay at home and do chores while boys are supposed to go out and earn money. These things are instilled in the brains of children through their books too, in which the boys are depicted playing around while girls are shown working.
A research by International Journal of Population shows that Indian Families don’t spend as much on their daughter’s education and nutrition as much as they spend on their sons, thinking that the daughters are ‘paraya dhan’.
A boy’s education is given more importance than girls, yet, the crimes against the female gender doesn’t stop. In India, women are still victim of crimes like rape, dowry deaths, acid attacks, kidnapping and female foeticide, And these crimes are mostly committed by males. NCRB records show that in india:
- 32.6% crimes fall under ‘Cruelty by husband or his relative’
- 25% of the crimes are committed as ‘Assault on woman to outrage her modesty’
- 11% of the crimes are rape.
- Out of all these cases, 76% of the crimes are committed on lower caste community.
India’s average rate of reported rape cases is about 6.3 per 100,000 of the population. However, this differs in places like Sikkim and Delhi, which have rates of 30.3 and 22.5, respectively, while Tamil Nadu has a rate of less than one. According to a report by Livemint, 99% of sexual violence cases go unreported. This is majorly seen in states where female literacy is low, like Uttar Pradesh, bihar and Jharkhand. A report by IJEIS shows that 62.2% women in Bihar faced domestic violence, while in Goa 17% women faced it. Among the metros, the fairer sex was better off in Delhi at 16.3% and Mumbai-19.5% recorded relatively low percentage as compared to Chennai 40.6% and Kolkata 26.7%.
A few days ago, in the Hathras village of UP, 4 thakur men raped a 19 year old woman. Additionally, they cut off her tongue and broke her spinal cord too. She was found in such condition by her mother, who took her to the hospital. The 19-year-old wasn’t given any proper treatment for 4 days for the reason that ‘she was being dramatic’. Thousands of such crimes are committed against ST and SC. In 2019, crimes against SC and Dalits Increased by 7% and 26% respectively. Out of these castes based crimes, Rajasthan ranks at the top with 556 rape cases where the woman belong to a scheduled caste, next is UP with 537 such cases and then Bihar with 510 cases. In this case, it is clearly visible that the caste, gender and class of a person influence the crime and violence inflicted.
Just like this case, in 2014, an employer raped 2 dalit teenage girls, in the Katra village of UP, for the reason that they dared to ask for an increase in salary by rs 3. The upper caste men couldn’t stomach the audacity of these girls to ask something of him, and so they were kidnapped, gang raped and then hanged from a tree. Such kind of violence is not committed just to control women, but also to maintain the caste structure. But lately, rising aspirations among young Dalits have improved their lives, but this has also led to an increase in violence against them by people from the upper caste.
Crime is an act which can never be eradicated from the world, but it can definitely be lessened through the means of education. Through education, boys and girls both learn about what is wrong and what is right. The New NEP brings in a lot of necessary changes. With this policy, India’s future as well as education will change, bringing in new hopes. Yet there are a lot of things that this policy didn’t shine any focus on such as Sex Education, Menstrual health, mental health and moral education.
Sex is a topic that people are still very shy to talk about in India, rather deciding to stay quiet about it. This topic is still hidden from, as people try to avoid it as much as they can. In the new education policy, there is still no mention of Sex Education as a subject, and neither are there any steps taken towards educating on this topic. There are many cases of teen pregnancies in India, in which they are not given the option of abortion. This becomes a scary situation for the child, risking her life as well as future. Sex Education is a requirement in a country like India, not just to avoid teen pregnancies but also to lower the increasing rape cases in the country. People are still not clear about what sex is, looking at it as just a pleasure activity. To control the very large population of India, to lower its rape cases, to avoid unwanted pregnancies, and to promote the use of protection, introducing Sex Education is necessary. India is a country which needs to talk about such topics, which needs to learn the importance of being educated, and yet the absence of this topic is a shameful thing.
Both the genders should be educated equally, so that the boys and men learn what the limit is and what thinking they should inhabit, while the girls learn what is right for them and what their rights are. This information will be gained through education, which will slowly bring in a change in the crime rate, and will create equality between both the genders. Such kinds of disgusting crimes against women and girls won’t be eradicated completely through law and punishment. The government will have to use education as a tool to bring in change. Moral Education will also have to be brought in so that the old and young get to know that their thinking isn’t right.
The New Education Policy will better the education system, but it will not change the thinking of people. To change the thinking of people, some necessary topics need to b brought in. If the people keep thinking the same way, the country will move ahead, not the people.
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