Bridging the Divide: An Analysis of Indian Education :: Essays Papers

Bridging the Divide An Analysis of Indian pedagogyIntroductionEducational levels absorb always been regarded as key indicators, not just of economic development, but of social well being. For this reason, literacy rates argon of interest to development economists and social activists alike. Literacy is in fact, a component of the humans Development Indicator, suggesting that income and mortality alone cannot capture the essential quality of disembodied spirit that a person enjoys. Yet statistics on overall literacy rates are deceiving, for they do not reflect the social inequities which determine who receives the opportunity to gaming literate and who does not. India, the country of focus for this paper, provides an excellent example of the complex record of literacy. Development scholars have often cited India as an example of progress in the field of education, as in the past five decades depicted object literacy levels have almost tripled, from 18.33% in 1951 to 52.2% i n 2001. However this statistic masks the fact that the growth is primarily attributable to increases in male literacy (from 27% to over 65% during the alike(p) time span). While womens literacy rates have improved, by the turn of the century, over 60% of Indian women remained illiterate. While the Indian state issued divers(a) statements asserting its commitment to female education. any progress in the nation has only been made very recently when, with the growth of nongovernmental organizations (henceforth NGOs) working in the field of non-formal womens schooling, a lot of work has been done on identifying barriers to female education in India. The purpose of this paper is not to synthesise the work done by these NGOs. Instead, I wish to outline a framework in which to understand the problems women reckon in attaining literacy, in severalise to devise progressive policies and more effectively implement them.In the commencement ceremony part of this paper, I attempt to expla in the underlying similarities between many impediments to female education for unfortunate rural and urban communities. I key out how different social contexts mold the manifestations of these problems, but not the issues themselves. Many difficulties women face must be therefore be understood as national problems, but require specific understanding in order to target the particular forms those issues take in local communities.While all poor Indian women face challenges in receiving an education, some female populations are peculiarly marginalized. Therefore, in the next part of my analysis, I focus on the reasons for urban-rural gaps in the literacy rates between Indian women, taking the case of lower-caste poor women animated in North Indian villages.