Development Challenges for 21st Century Indian Society: Issues in Women Literacy & Women Rights Education in Assam

K. M. Baharul Islam

1. Introduction By the beginning of twenty first century Indian Women are envisaged to step into a new era of awareness, freedom and social responsibilities. In the emerging Indian Society the women are seen as the potential catalyst of social development inside and outside the four walls of their homes. The women activists, barring the 'feminists' as such has attained a great deal of success in making the Indian Women aware of her rights. The electronic and print media has also played its part of the country. But such awareness generation is largely confined to the educated upper class urban society with a few exceptions. There prevails a large scale lack of awareness amongst the Indian Women about their legal rights guaranteed to them by various laws of the land. Interestingly it is found that even the educated employed urban women are also not aware of their rights. This is due to the lack of conducive atmosphere wherein such awareness among the women is deliberately cultivated through proper educational planning. This paper deals with the case of Total Literacy campaign (LTC) - a programme launched by the Government of India to attain total literacy in the country. It finds out where exactly our mass education drives like TLC are lacking in imparting Women Rights education and what may be done to gear such programmes for awareness generation among the rural & poor women. 2. Background Transition from home to the world outside has been a long struggle with the traditional shackles of Indian society. With a steady rise in the literacy rate there has been a marked increase in the participation of women in various spheres of activities. Women representatives in village level self-governing bodies like Panchayets, Municipalities etc. The government now wants to ensure proper participation through a legislation to reserve 33% of seats for women in the legislative bodies and a Bill to this effect is before the Indian parliament. But such steps like electing women representatives to law-making bodies presupposes that our women members are aware of their rights themselves and there is a general conscious environment to claim such rights, mere reservation will not improve the condition of Indian Women overnight. But studies in Indian women's awareness about their rights have not been much positive and it demands further in this area. 3. Objectives of the study This study was undertaken to find out : 1. The present status of women literacy in Assam with an overall view of North East India. 2. Women Rights awareness as seen through a sample survey among 3. The causes of lack of women rights awareness among Indian women. 4. The possible means to include proper women rights education modules in the literacy drives like Total literacy

Campaign (TLC) to educate the neo-literate women about their rights. 4. Status of Literacy in North East India Gender-based inequality is one of the major dimensions of literacy movements in India. If we study the literacy trends in India during the period 1951-91 (Table:01 & Table :02), we will see that while about 64.13 per cent of males in India were literate in 1991, the female literates being only 39.29 per cent. Coming to the North East scenario, in Assam the male literacy rate is 61.87 per cent and that of the female is only 43.03 per cent. Here Mizoram's literacy rate is highest of all (82.27%) with the female Literacy being 78.60 per cent. According to Shamim Akhtar (1997) : Most of the Indian women have been subjected to social injustice and exploitation. She occupies a secondary place in the society. Her role is confined to the household duties only. Being a member of the oppressed group her education is not a matter of much importance to the dominant section of the society which is predominated by her male counterparts. Now people come out to make these oppressed people literate and various methods 2,3,4,5 have been undertaken. The launching of the National Literacy Mission in 1988 and the emergence of Ernakulam as the first fully literate district in India stands out. While the former enhanced the status of Adult Education programme, assured political and policy support, the latter sparkled off a series of literacy campaigns 7,8 which led to the eradication of illiteracy from a number of districts. It also succeeded in getting the cooperation of all sections of society to create a mass movement. In fact it is the turning point in the history of Adult education in India. Table 1 India : 1951-1991 Literacy Rate (%) Illiterates Year Persons Males Females In million 1951 18.33 27.16 8.86 1961 28.31 40.40 15.34 167.32 1971 34.45 45.95 21.97 307.19 1981* 43.56 56.37 29.75 340.75 1991** 52.21 64.13 39.29 328.88 * 1981 report without Assam ** 1991 report without Jammu and Kashmir Table 2 : Literacy Status of Assam and the North Eastern Region Literacy Rates (7+) States Total Males Females Mizoram 82.27 85.61 78.60 Nagaland 61.65 67.62 54.75 Manipur 59.89 71.63 47.60 Tripura 60.44 70.58 49.65 Assam 53.42 61.87 43.03 Meghalaya 49.10 53.12 44.85 Arunachal 41.59 51.45 29.69 Pradesh Source : Census of India 1991

5. Women Rights Education - Definition & Limitation "Constitutional and legal rights of women in India and that of the girl child are not known to a vast section of our population in this country" (Mandal, 1995 : Preface). These rights are related to the constitutional provisions (which are equally applicable to all the citizens of the country) and the marital rights under various personal laws as well as rights against atrocities on women. Women Rights Education means a planned effort to inculcate and awareness about these rights among women. But, this study is limited to the literacy campaigns and post literacy programmes wherein the scope of women rights education is to explored. 6. Awareness Survey : Results A few pertinent questions were asked to a sample consisting of 200 women belonging to various groups like Educated, Illiterate, Employed, Urban, Rural etc. and the following results were tabulated : Q.1 Are you aware of your constitutional, legal & marital rights? In details (%) Vague Idea (%) Nil (%) a. Educated 21 34 45 b. Employed 19 28 53 c. Urban 17 19 64 d. Rural 5 13 82 e. Neo-Literate 8 17 75 f. Illiterate 1 5 94 Q.2 How will you react when your brothers do not give you a share in your family property? Response/ Percentage a. Leave the matter there 61 b. Take the matter to the court/Legal forum 7 c. Don't know 32 Q.3 When you are discriminated in your workplace . In terms of wage ,etc. Response/ Percentage a. Adjust myself to the situation 45 b. Ask for redress 21

c. Don't know 34

Q.4 When your privacy has been attacked Response/ Percentage a. Conceal the matter 64 b. Seek redressal/take the matter to the Court 12 c. Don't know 34 Q.5 When your husband / in-laws treat you badly Response Percentage a. Adjust myself to the situation 55 b. Seek redressal/take the matter to the Court 9 c. Don't know 36 Q.6 How did you became aware of your rights? Media Percentage a. Television 26 b. News paper/Magazine 16 c. Neighbours and friends 13 d. Literacy Classes 10 e. Social Workers of the Area 4 f. Books on Women Issues 8 g. Parents 12 h. Husband & In- laws 3 i. School/College 8 Q.7 What the cause of lack of women rights awareness?

Causes Percentage a. Lack of Learning Opportunities 43 b. Lack of family support 20 c. Discouragement from society/in-laws 18 d. No conducive atmosphere 13 e. No state patronage 6 Q.8 Have you learnt enough about your rights as a women? YES NO Don't Know 10 77 13 The foregoing data makes it crystal clear that there exists an urgent need of increasing the awareness level of the Indian women about their legal, constitutional & marital rights. We can see that as much as 45% of the educated women are not aware of their rights and 94% of the illiterate women have no idea about women rights. A corroborative response is also seen when only a small percentage of women has indicated to go for legal/judicial redressal against any infringement of such rights. At the same time it is also well founded that most of these women (77%) are aware that the do not know enough about their rights. 7. Total Literacy Campaign : Present Status At present the TLC is in progress in a number of districts of Assam and as per the guidelines of the National Literacy Mission the total focus of the campaign is on attaining the functional literacy. National Literacy Mission has set the level of literacy which is to be attained during TLC as follows : Reading Loud reading of 30 words per minute and silent reading of 35 words per minute. Reading & Understanding general posters, road signs, simple directions, news-paper, simple write-ups etc. Writing Writing/Copying 7 words per minute, dictation 5 words per minutes legibly. Besides these one should be able to write small letters, applications and to fill up forms. Number Reading & writing 1 to 100, addition, subtraction, multiplication & division of two-digit numbers, knowledge of units of weight, quantity, length, volume metric scale and counting money. Measurement of time, simple interest and ratio. In TLC, besides literacy three other aspects have been emphasised : Awareness : Learners should be aware of the needs of health & hygiene, rules & regulations, duties towards family Society and the nation. Effectiveness : Utilisation of gathered knowledge in daily life. National Values : Love for the fellow countrymen irrespective of caste, creed etc. Preservation & furtherance of national wealth and honour.

Besides these elements, eagerness should be developed about local folk-lore, culture, flora and fauna etc. Efforts should be made to develop scientific temper among the people. Therefore, mass people should be motivated on this national endeavor and proper training should be given to the volunteer groups to achieve 100% success in the campaign. Because, beyond literacy TLC aims at development of general awareness, unexplored potentials and team spirit among the people. However the Women Rights Education elements are pathetically missing in the main literacy drive modules as well as post-literacy drives. It is found that there is ample room for inclusion of women rights education materials in the post-literacy programmes of TLC. The neo-literate women are very much eager to know about their rights but there is not much materials to give them suitable awareness materials. To make the newly found literacy worthwhile for these women, the post-literacy drive should focus on a concerted effort to raise the awareness level in terms of their rights. There is not much materials on women rights which can be presented at the post literacy level for the neo-literate women. There is a need to gather such resources & suitable material production in the form of booklet, video films, and cinema. But, at present there is no provision for such activities in the scheme of total Literacy campaign. 8. Some Success Stories The success story of Ernakulam in Kerala has gone into the history of literacy movements in India. It has become a tren-setter elsewhere in the country. The Assam Science Society, Guwahati established `Gyan Vigyan Samiti, Assam' (GVSA) and started a pilot experiment in seven developmental blocks spreading over six districts of Assam. The project covers the learners age group of 9 to 45 years. The three primers are gender-sensitive with special emphasis on the women rights awareness and functional in nature. (The TLC blocks are Lahoal in Dibrugarh, Dhemaji in Dhemaji District, Mairabari and Laharighat in Morigaon district, Raha in Nagaon district, Sipajhar in Darrang district and Pragiyotishpur subdivision in Kamrup district). An evaluation of the campaign was done by Adult Continuing and Extension Education Department, Guwahati University in 1994. In its report it says ( in Akthar, 1997) : Women participation is very high in the Post Literacy phase. For continuing education Gana Chetana Kendras (Public Libraries) were constituted in each ward of a village Panchayat. A total number of nearly 750 such centres are functioning. These are running under the supervision a volunteer co-ordinator. At least 230 such centres are run by the female coordinator teachers. This proves the effect of literacy on women in shouldering the responsibility of running a public library. Such success stories can lead us to a definite aim of including women rights education as one of the prime area of our concern in the next century. As we advocate a case for more and more participation of women in the nation's affairs, we must prioritize our literacy drives accordingly. Post-literacy activities will definitely be the focus of our attention in the coming years. 9. Conclusions The following conclusions are drawn from this study : 1. There is a lack of awareness among the Indian Women in general and rural & illiterate women in specific about the legal, constitutional & marital rights. 2. The main reasons of such lack of awareness may be enumerated as dearth of learning opportunities, discouraging atmosphere in the society, non availability of state patronage for women rights education in its educational programmes like TLC.

3. The neo-literate women are aware of the newly found awareness about their rights and they are very much eager to know more about their rights. They are adaptive and responsive to various exposures to mass media wherein the women rights issues are highlighted. 4. The total Literacy Campaign (TLC) launched by the Government of India lacks proper modules for women rights education and this gap may be bridged through resource generation and suitable material production. 5. Post Literacy programmes, particularity in the total literacy districts, may be geared to women rights awareness generation. 6. Due to inherent limitations of this study, it is found that the issues concerning a mass programme for Women rights education should be studied in order perspective and a comparative study may be done with advanced countries in terms of women's literacy rate and awareness. Reference 1. Mandal, M. , Rights of Women in India (Preface),Calcutta : SLRTC, 1995. 2. Akthar, S, Literacy : The Women and Empowerment, paper presented at the Education India Conference; New Delhi, 1997 3. A Sourcebook of Adult Education : Directorate of Adult Education : New Delhi (1987). 4. Project proposal for TLC in 8 blocks of 6 districts of Assam, Assam Science Society : G.V.S.A. (1991). 5. Literacy - Tamil Nadu Experience : National Literacy Mission (1994).

Contact Information: K M Baharul Islam Coordinator Centre for Educational Technology Regional Engg College, Silchar Member, District Total Literacy Committee, Cachar (Assam)

Back to Table of Contents

Policy | Research | Technology | Innovations | Training | Bookstore | Home | Help | Site Map | About ILI | About NCAL From http://web.archive.org/web/20080119142554/http://www.literacyonline.org/products/ili/webdocs/ba harul.html

Generated by: