Thursday, 29 November 2018

Women Empowerment through Higher Education

(This is a valedictory address fir a seminar on Women Empowerment through Higher Education)


 Dear Friends,
 At the end of an interesting, informative and thought provoking sessions spread over two days, the valedictory address will certainly sound like a damp squib. I like to start with a cautionary note that I am not going to say something earthshaking about Women empowerment that you do not know. What I propose to say may sound a little unconventional in an age when women strongly feel and fight for equal rights in all walks of life.
Let me start with a confession- which may not surprise anyone here looking at my conservative sartorial get up- that I am not a militant feminist trying to paint all women as angels and all men as demons. 
I do not subscribe to any form of feminism or masculinism that is distanced from the fundamental human rights, i.e. the basic rights and freedoms to which all humans(men and women) are entitled and which include the rights to life, liberty, equality, education, opportunity, a fair trial, freedom from slavery and torture, and freedom of thought and expression. I am proud to be a woman as I recognize women’s intellectual and emotional potential to accomplish any task given to them and their extraordinary power to endure physical pain and mental distress. But I am not a hardcore feminist who blames all men for all the wrongs women are subjected to and seeks to privilege one sex over the other.  I am a real feminist who acknowledges the role and importance of men as well and support the rights of men as much as they support the rights of women. I believe in a spirit of cooperation and not confrontation to redress the sufferings of women in a society that has been for centuries a male dominated one.  But I am of the firm belief that men and women should join hands together to protect women against the denial of these rights and against the assaults of perverted masculinism.
This two day seminar on the empowerment of women has focused on higher education for breaking grounds to eliminate gender discrimination. In my humble and modest way, I would have liked the topic to be a little more positive by substituting ‘discrimination’ with the word ‘parity’. The reason is discrimination does carry a pejorative note of complaint, accusatory and a hurt feeling of self pity on the perceived presumptions that
1.                 1.We inhabit a male world- which is not true. This planet  is our world  which does not discriminate between men and women in disbursing her rich bounty
2. The male society is intolerant, prejudiced and ranged against the females en masse.
 I don’t like women being seen as whining and complaining, harbouring resentment against men, their binary opposite. I prefer the word ‘parity’ which is more nuanced as it asserts the functional equivalence between men and women in terms of mental, intellectual and performing power. Parity implies equality in status between men and women and therefore we must make a legitimate demand for gender parity based on the fact that both genders have equal claims to basic human rights. If women empowerment has to succeed, women must  assert their dignity, self confidence and self respect without appearing to be begging men to confer it on them.  The same argument holds for seeking inclusive policies to include women in policy matters and governing issues, which imply in the first place that women have been excluded and reparations have to be done only  by men to include them in the mainstream. It is important to understand that we- the citizens of India- or for that matter citizens of the world- includes both men and women. In democracy, inclusiveness is the peg to hang governance, formulating policies and schemes towards the welfare of the entire society that comprises men and women. When people protest about not implementing 33% reservation for women, my reaction is why should men confer this largesse on women. Do you need your husband’s permission to enter your own home? Similarly why do we need men’s permission to enter the house of representatives- the Parliament , the State assembly, the Municipal Corporations and the  Panchayats. This is because we have a mindset that always look to men for patronage and be on their doles. With women accounting for 50% of the population, we have enough bench strength to form a party of our own on one single ideology- of commitment to human rights to preserve true democracy. Human rights do not distinguish between right and left ideology. Human rights confer upon every individual the opportunity to realize his/her true potential. Hence my question is don’t women have the right to contest on their own without being supported by male caryatids?  In the Greek ancient temple architecture, we have caryatids- rectangular columns, shaped in the form of a person to support the entire structure.  Let us not make men our caryatids so that we can standup Let us not beg for seats, but contest the seats as our birthright. If men claim to have the prerogative to contest, women also have it iin equal measure.  If all women band together and contest as a party for implementing gender parity, our Constitution provides us the platform. L et people decide who can protect, nurture and sustain human rights which , put together, is superior to all other winnable ideologies that party manifestoes promise prior to elections. My first submission is to be fully aware of the motto Susan Anthony coined for Women’s revolution: “ Men their rights and nothing more; women their rights and nothing less".
The main theme of this seminar is about Women empowerment through higher education. Again I have a difficulty in understanding this concept. Today we know that men and women have equal share in university admission- and in certain disciplines, women students constitute a larger number.  Let us ask ourselves the question:  has this brought about any change in the mindset of men and women? The increasing number of rape cases, the Me-too stories , the treatment of women as the second sex in our male dominated society do not prove that higher education has made all that difference in our society. Educated women prefer to be silent and be dominated while educated men continue their partriarchal superiority over women. There s no data to prove that men are superior to women in cognitive domains or in emotional feelings or in intellectual discernment.  If educated people have failed to recognize the importance of women empowerment, it begs the question about the power and potency of higher education in bringing parity between men and women in our society.
We have to address ourselves to the question why higher education has not given the desired result? The last two days of seminar have closely dealt with this subject with statistical data to show the positive impact of higher education on women empowerment. When I glanced through the list of speakers, I recognized the proportion between male and female speakers has been in the ratio of 3:1. This proves that women, more than men are conscious of  the need for higher education to usher in gender parity. This discovery was a Ureka moment for me as it flashed in my mind that what is needed is not education for women, but for men. The key role of education is to sensitize us to the sameness and difference between the two genders and develop mutual respect for each other. I am reminded of William Bratton’s words: ”You cannot police a community without effectively working with the community.” This is true of all issues including gender neutrality and gender parity. We have to work with the opposite gender to usher in the change instead of taking recourse to blame game.
What is higher education? It is no doubt learning advanced courses to secure good jobs, to pursue study and research and contribute to the society. But higher education is more than jobs and economic success. It is towards building a fulfilling life, towards achieving personal growth and becoming aware and sensitive to society, citizenship and the commitment to equity and social justice. Our universities and colleges are turning out to be multiversities that impart skills towards securing a job but they fail to provide a broader and more inclusive  lesson of preparedness to meet the demands of life. Our universities have failed  to provide students the much needed emotional and personal preparedness that combines fellow feelings, humaneness, grit, resolve and a strong work ethic.  Gender sensitivity will be the automatic outcome of this kind of education where men and women move freely ,exchange ideas on equal terms and learn to work together in a  spirit of cooperation. For this purpose  colleges and Universities should organize  special lectures on various social issues by introducing students to world class books written on them. This is t be called The Great Book Series and twice a week a hour long lecture followed by a 30 minute discussion will open up young minds to important issues that are beyond the classroom. University education is to make young men and women develop curiosity to learn, whet their appetite to read and challenge their intellect to basic human issues that are currently glossed over.
I seek your indulgence to listen to my personal narrative. I come from a middle class conservative Brahmin family that believes in tradition and rituals that have been followed for many centuries.  But when I see myself today as someone who has found her own identity and not as someone’s daughter or wife or as a professional,   I recognize the significant role my family had played in shaping me. My father, a strict disciplinarian and a traditionalist at heart made no distinction between his sons and daughters when they were growing up. He encouraged his daughters to study and get into a profession of their choice – a move that came as a shock to his own parents and other elders who felt that parental responsibility begins and ends with finding a life partner for the girls. My father insisted on the sons sharing the household work with the daughters and educating all of them equally. In fact, none of us were even aware of the world outside with its deep biases against women being sent to schools and colleges.  He made all of us think and decide for ourselves how to challenge minds that have been set on blind conformity to tradition. Tradition is central to civilization and culture, but tradition like all other things in the world is subject to change.  We were made to decide for ourselves how to balance traditional beliefs with modernity that seeks a rational understanding of age old beliefs. This change could not have been possible without the active support and encouragement of the family that predominantly remained  a patriarchal family.
I would like to read a few lines from Simone de Beauvoir, about the development of a young girl : ”When she does not find love, she may find poetry. Because she does not act, she observes, she feels, she records; a color, a smile awakens profound echoes within her; her destiny is outside her, scattered in cities already built, on the faces of men already marked by life, she makes contact, she relishes with passion and yet in a manner more detached, more free, than that of a young man. Being poorly integrated in the universe of humanity and hardly able to adapt herself therein, she, like the child, is able to see it objectively; instead of being interested solely in her grasp on things, she looks for their significance; she catches their special outlines, their unexpected metamorphoses. She rarely feels a bold creativeness, and usually she lacks the technique of self-expression; but in her conversation, her letters, her literary essays, her sketches, she manifests an original sensitivity. The young girl throws herself into things with ardor, because she is not yet deprived of her transcendence; and the fact that she accomplishes nothing, that she is nothing, will make her impulses only the more passionate. Empty and unlimited, she seeks from within her nothingness to attain All.”
I would like to end with a story that Shirdi Sai Baba narrated to his disciples.  “A rough stone trampled and trodden by passing worshippers accosts the beautiful stone sculpture inside the temple. The stone laments its fate and enviously says that the sculpture is lucky to be inside and remain the object of worship, reverence and admiration. “ Look at me and look At you, What a shame that I am treated with such callousness while you are feted and  honoured day in and day out.” The sculpture smiled and answered: “ I was also a stone like you to begin with, a part of the mountain. But when I was carved out of the mountain, chiselled ,sculpted and polished  I endured a lot of pain. At the end you see what I am as the sculptor recognized the quality within me and appreciated my silent endurance to make me what I am. We all have our potential. But many of us are not even aware of what we have and what we can become. No one will listen to your grunts and grumbles. Rise up and be counted. “ I leave it to you to ponder over the story. Recognize your genetic quality as a woman,  rise up to your full potential through your efforts and be counted. Higher education is the tool that can sculpt you to perfection.

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