1
Muslim Youth
Females in Higher Education: Problems and Concerns
Muslim
Youth Females in Higher Education:
Problems and Concerns
*Dr. Badar Jahan
“Give a
girl an education and introduce her properly into the world, and ten to one but
she has the means of settling well, without further expense to anybody.” ― Jane Austen
It is well accepted that the role
of education is very significant in social, cultural and economic development
of an individual, a society and a nation. In general the Muslim community is legged
behind in education and in particular Muslim women are educationally the most
backward section of society.
The
progress and all development of a country depend upon harnessing the skills and
abilities of all sections of society regardless of cast, creed, religion and
sex. Women have been discriminated against for ages and they have not been
given equal opportunities in many social, educational, economic and cultural spheres.
If women’s involvement is not in the development activities, it is not merely
obstructs their own development but also affects the progress of the whole
country. “Index of modernization of any society is the position of its women
vis-à-vis men, the more balanced the opportunity structure for men and women,
the large the role women have in society and consequently the higher their
status. In a developing society it is essential that both men and women play
equal and important role in the development efforts”. 1
In 1979 the United Nation adopted the
convention on the elimination of all form of discrimination against women (CEDAW).
This is known as the international Bill of women’s right. 2 In 1980 U.N. Report it was reported that “women
institute half of the world’s population, perform nearly two third of its work
hours, receive one tenth of the world’s income and less than one hundredth of
the world’s property.
Statistics disclose that women comprise
66 percent of world’s illiterates and 70 percent of world’s poor”.3 In India the situation of women is very miserable
in general. “Women have been socially, educationally economically, physically,
psychologically and sexually exploited sometime in the name of religion and
sometimes by the custom and tradition”.4 And in particular since Muslim are in minority in
India, their women’s position is even worse because there is an attempt to
safeguard the community identity that generally prevent.
Muslim
Women face discrimination at dual level one is being minority secondly being
women with cultural, traditional and religious restrictions. “In general, women
are the most vulnerable section of our Indian society due to its patriarchal
nature. Muslim women suffer more because of the patriarchal nature of Islam and
are not given enough freedom and hardly have access to higher education, though
even the primary level education is not easily accessible to them”.5 The reason why, Muslim women have the lowest
education status as compared to their counterparts belonging to other religious
communities, Muslim girls are not encouraged to take higher education also
their drop out numbers from school are
higher. They have been pushed into
stereotype role of looking after household chores which undermines their
capacities and capabilities. One manifestation of this is, as pointed out in
one study, that majority i.e. 69.75 percent Muslim women do not want to educate
their daughters beyond the primary level of education. Further many middle
class women who have requisite qualifications are not allowed to seek
employment because ‘community respectability’ is likely to get smeared. This
has resulted in general backwardness of Muslims and particularly Muslim women
in India.6
The struggle for formal education of
Muslim women began at the end of nineteenth century. Sir Maulana Hali and
Sheikh Abdullah took the lead to fight for the cause of education for Muslim
women and opened a girl’s school in 1894. Education of girls and women has
transited from extreme opposition to total acceptance by the end of the last
century. Sultan Jehan, the Begum of Bhopal was the first women in the Indian
history who believed in the emancipation of women through education. She
started the first school for Muslim girls in 1903 the Sultania school . A
resolution was passed in the annual Muslim Education Conference session at
Lucknow to establish a girl’s school in Aligarh and the school was opened in
1906. In 1911, Sakhawat Memorial Girls High School was started in Bengal by
Rokeya Sakhawat Hussain. Maulana Karamat Hussain and the Raja of Mahmudabad
also supported for girl’s education and started a girl’s school in Lucknow in
1912.
Afterward, since Independence, the
Government of India has appointed various Committees and commissions to look
into the problems of education. Several policies are being formulated to
promote and strengthen education of children. With regard to education of
Minorities, some of the important recommendations are e.g. The Report of the Education
Commission (1964-66 ), The National Policy on Education (1968), The National
Policy on Education (NPE) 1986 revised in 1992 and its Programme of Action
(POA), envisages paying greater attention to the education of the educationally
backward minorities in the interest of equality and social justice. Government
declared for the specially women’s education in minorities “As the women
literacy and the girls enrolment is lowest among educationally backward minorities,
in the schemes of opening of girls schools, appointment of lady teachers,
opening of girls hostels and providing of incentives in the form of mid – day
meals, uniforms etc. minorities’ needs should be fully met. A production–cum–training
center for crafts exclusively for girls preferably with women instructors to
the extent possible in each of the identified minority concentration districts.
This will be done by State Governments.” (A study by Anita Nuna supported by
NCRT, 2003). The Article 15 of constitution has recently been amended by the
Constitution (Ninety-third Amendment) Act, 2005 to empower the State to make
special provisions, by law, for admission of socially and educationally
backward classes of citizens or scheduled castes/tribes to educational
institutions including private educational institutions, whether aided or
unaided by the State, other than minority educational institutions.
Sachar
Committee report also highlights the condition of Muslim women’s education as “A
wide variety of problems associated with the education of Muslim women were
raised. These problems result in low enrolment and retention. In this dismal
scenario there is one big ray of hope; while the education system appears to
have given up on Muslim girls, the girls themselves have not given up on
education. 7
Evan after all the efforts made by
educationists and government still the Muslim women are most back ward in field
of education. After independence Muslim women literacy rate has been very poor
comparatively with their other counter parts. According to ORG-Marg Muslim Women's
Survey — commissioned by the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi
—conducted in 2000-2001 in 40 districts spanning 12 states, the enrolment
percentage of Muslim girl children is a mere 40.66 per cent. As a consequence,
the proportion of Muslim women in higher education is a mere 3.56 per cent,
lower even than that of scheduled castes (4.25 per cent). On all-India basis,
66 per cent Muslim women are stated to be illiterate. The illiteracy is most
widespread in Haryana while Kerala has least illiteracy among Muslim women
closely followed by Tamil Nadu. Muslim women are found to be more literate than
their Hindu counterparts in the states of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra
Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Most of the northern states are in urgent
need of vigorous and sustained literacy campaigns. The enrolment figure of 52.1
per cent for urban Muslim females compares poorly to the corresponding figure
of 70.7 per cent for Hindu females, which further widens across subsequent age
categories to end with 4.7 per cent of Muslim females attending educational
institutions, compared to 10.2 per cent of Hindu women or 18.2 per cent of
Christian women. Clearly, Muslim women in urban India are much worse off than
their rural counterparts, not only in terms of their overall educational status
as citizens of India, but also in terms of their relatively poor educational
status when compared to Hindu or Christian women. This trend is all the more
alarming when this situation is compared to the advances in Muslim female
education achieved at the turn of the century. This educational disadvantage of
women in Muslim communities mandates attention.
The Indian government has failed to
secure primary and secondary education for most of its citizens and its
policies have deprived people of their right to education. It could also be
assumed that their percentage quite less in obtaining higher education
according to a study on the educational Status of Muslim women 2012 don by Dr.
SV Shinde & Dr Annie John “a total of 129 universities and 84 colleges
provided data. The “all India” estimates generated from these data pertain to
just over 1.3 million graduate (bachelors degree) and another 1.5 million
postgraduates (masters degree and above) Muslim females.
This poor educational status of Muslim
women at primary and secondary school level completely curbs the possibility of
their entering institutions of higher education and all over development. In
general perception, these women are typically seen as a secluded section and
unrecognized in their homogeneity. To highlight their problems means, to do no
more than observing the influence of religion and personal law in their lives
and emphasizing the usual stereotypes i.e. pardah
(veil), multiple marriages, triple talaq
(divorce) and so on. Despite these differences, when compared to women from
other faiths in India, the majority of Muslim women are among the most
disadvantaged, least literate, most economically impoverished and politically
marginalized sections of Indian society. Muslim women are secluded and conditioned
to such an exploitative situation in their lives and the matter of fact that
they accept the fatwas (verdicts)
passed by religious leaders. They need to be seen as citizens and social beings,
entitled to the same rights that the Constitution of India grants to all its
citizens. The right to education, especially at the primary level is mandated
by the Constitution. The only solution to liberate them from the shackles of
ignorance, illiteracy, exploitation is through education that could help them
tremendously to be part of mainstream development.
In order to
improve the situation the first thing need to do is Area Intensive Education
Approach that should be applied to all educationally backward regions focusing
on Muslim Minority dominated area. Also, there is a need for expansion of secondary
and higher secondary education especially for rural Muslim girls by improving
the school infrastructure, increasing accessibility to schools by providing free
transportation, road connectivity, safe environment and constructing the higher
secondary schools near to the villages and towns. It may also help to reduce
the drop outs of the girls in the middle of school. As twelve years of formal schooling is required for
entry into diplomas, technical and professional education courses or general
higher education.
References:
1.
Sushila
Jain, 1988, “The Process of Modernization in India and the Status of Muslim
Women” in Status of Women (ed) Sushila Aggrawal p. 78.
2.
Nevdita Giri, 2006, “Laws Institution and
Women’s Right in India” in Laws Institution and Women’s Right in India (ed) by
Tapan Biswal, New Delhi, Viva Book Pvt. Ltd.
p. 302
3.
A. S.
Anand, 2003, Justice For Women, New Delhi, Universal Law Publishing Company P.
16
4.
Nevdita
Giri, 2006, “Laws Institution and Women’s Right in India” in Laws Institution
and Women’s Right in India (ed) by Tapan Biswal, Opp. Cit P. 302
5.
Dr.
Annie John, 2012, Educational Status Of Muslim Women In India, Review Of
Research, Vol.1,Issue.VI/March; 12pp.1-4
6.
Asghar
Ali Engineer, 2005, Islam Women and Gender Justice, New Delhi, Kalpaz
Publishers.
7.
Sachar
Committee Report, 2006, P.16.
Bibliography
1.
“An
Analytical Study of Education of Muslim Women and Girls in India”, 2007-8,
Ministry of Woman and Child Development, New Delhi, www.jeywin.com,.
2.
Afzal M.
Wani, April 1996, “Enforcement of Mahr by Muslim women: A case for
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4.
Dillip Kumar Tripathy and Asheesh
Dubey, 2007, “Status of Muslim Women in India”,
PRM-27, Volume 11 No. 2.
5. Dr. M.I.H.
Farooqi, Sidrah, 2011, "MUSLIM
SOCIETIES - RISE and FALL" Publishers, Lucknow.
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7.
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Shobha,
Anuja, September 1982, “Muslim women
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Indian
Journal of Youth Affairs: Vol. 17 (1) Jan-June 2013
