Shalini Chandra
Head Mistress, Junior School, Study Hall

The Nirbhaya tragedy has brought our girls and women into focus for all the wrong reasons ..”Give freedom to the girls to dress the way they want and go where they wish to and this is what will happen!”—-proclaim the fundamentalists .The so called progressive groups on the other hand are crying themselves hoarse demanding freedom for girls .I feel that if we really want to learn a lesson from this horrific crime , then we should all be asking just one question—how are we raising our boys?

We have to seriously rethink about our notions of ‘manly’ and ‘macho’ and stop accepting eve teasing and other obscene behaviour patterns in boys as ‘normal’ and ‘healthy’ .We should also take care that in the name of ‘Sanskaar’ , we must not teach them to treat girls as weak , insecure and needing protection .Parents don’t have to do things consciously to raise a boy well but following certain unwritten rules will go a long way in ensuring a healthy growth .A mother’s voice should never be stifled and she should have an equal say in the boy’s upbringing .Children of both sexes MUST play  and if possible , study together .Only then will the boys realise that the girls are equally capable , intelligent and fun to be with and not objects of desire .Parents and teachers have to watch their own language and behaviour carefully .Regular monitoring and counselling of teenaged boys will prevent them from succumbing to peer pressure .It sounds like a lot of effort but actually it requires just a change of our mindset . As a mother I appeal to all parents of boys to please give this a thought ?

SUPARNA CHATTERJEE
Study Hall School

In our country we like to believe in the Orwellian quote ”to see what is in front of one’s nose needs constant struggle”. Hence if a girl is violated or abused the mother lives in denial for a long time and fails to recognize the crime. She would not even disclose the ghastly act to others to protect the family’s honour. They fear being ostracized by society. In villages women are paraded naked, many are declared witches to deface them.

It is, also, a Herculian task to go and report the matter to the police. Questions asked by the male constables are more harassing than the act itself. The police stations do not have the required number of lady constables.

The judiciary is also not untouched by this sort of discrimination against women. There are very few women lawyers and judges in the courts. Comments made by judges about women lawyers are sexist and need to be monitored. The need of the hour is speedy justice which can give confidence to women. Justice Verma’s report, on rape, within a month is a ray of hope.

Let us understand things in their perspective.

Violence against women have gone up. This is not only because of the low status of women. Literacy rates amongst them are low and hence they are not aware of their rights. Currently more women go out to work and a change is witnessed in society. They are constantly under a microscopic observation of their male counterparts and need to prove themselves over and over again. Women get pushed and groped in private buses. This seems normal to most. What the men would not like to acknowledge is that even a light touch, verbal abuse or constant gaze is also a form of abuse.

What is violence?

It is an act of aggression. So there is a perpetrator and a victim involved in the act. Violence itself can be classified as two types subjective ( perpetrators of violence) which includes acts of assault, murder or even terror and objective (violence inherent to the system), which includes the functioning of our political and economic systems.  Slavoj Zizek.

What causes violence?

It is caused due to economic disparity in society. Lack of political will and globalization are the other causes of violence. Here subjective violence is related to objective violence and objectivity to subjectivity. This means the subject acts the way he acts due to the deep divisions that exist within our society – socially, politically and economically.

In the case of rape, the rapists can belong to a low strata income group (as we have seen in the case of Nirbhaya). They engaged in such a heinous act as a result of continuous repression and suppression. The perpetrators are a product of the ever increasing gap between the rich and the poor brought about by globalization, corruption and poor execution of government policy. The political system has failed to uplift their position. Society has failed them too. Hence the perpetrators can think of striking back.

We often engage in discussions and debates over subjective violence and fail to address the objective violence.

The only way of escaping this vicious circle is education and constant engagement with society. Our education policy needs revamping. Including gender education in our curriculum cannot be the only solution to the problem. Including spirituality could help. This may help us see women with respect. Let us not forget that this is the land where we believe

“yatr naryasto pojyantay, ramantay tatr devta”  [3/56]   Manusmriti.

(where women are provided place of honor, gods are pleased and reside there in that household)

Rekha Dhondiyal
Senior Teacher, Study Hall School

Why are women exploited all over the world? Also why does society in India seem so brutalized today? The recent Delhi rape case jolted us out of our slumber and awakened our collective conscience. The rage erupted like a tsunami and swept away centuries of indifference and drowned everyone in tears, sorrow and guilt. The whole nation hung their head in shame. They felt rape is not about sex. It is about man’s power and domination.  How and when it reared its ugly head and reached such monstrous proportions is something to think about.

The story goes that when first man and woman came into being, they lived as hunter and home maker. When the woman gave birth to a baby, the man got jealous because he couldn’t manufacture a baby whereas the weaker sex could.  Since that day he began controlling her and thus patriarchy was born.

When violence acts against women take place, society takes them as unfortunate incidents, only because they were not at the receiving end. Do we then proactively encourage maltreatment of women?  Of course, man is to blame but isn’t the woman also party to the crime by considering the male progeny as god? She thinks boys are more equal than girls, not her fault perhaps. She inherited this from her mother.

While changing the mindset is a wonderful objective, it’s not good enough. Firstly, it’s going to take decades to bring about a paradigm shift, we don’t have the time, can’t sacrifice any more women to such barbaric ways. The law has to help in punishing and deterring rape.  Punishment has to be given speedily.  Fast track courts would stop the- would-be rapists in their tacks! If a country can’t protect its women, half its population, it is not civilized.

Mothers should learn to treat daughters and sons alike.  When parents get dolls for the daughter and a truck for the son, they reinforce stereotypes. It would be heavenly if the mother made her son into a metro sexual, in touch with his feminine side. It would be nicer still, if she told him to sometimes prepare breakfast for all. She could tell the daughter to get fruits from the market. This way the both of them would grow up as equal beings capable of doing all the jobs equally well. She could make a rule that the two would be home before it got dark, not only the daughter. Training has to begin at home. Children are like a sponge, the first 7 years of their life they absorb and imbibe what they see in their home.

Victims of assault and rape have to be offered support while keeping their identity a secret and the rapists should be stigmatized. Social boycott might work if their face is splashed in all the papers and on TV channels. Why should they be allowed to cover their face?

Women should dress as they please, go wherever they want to.  Freedom is their birth right. But they must carry a pepper spray, learn taekwondo, boxing and hit them where it hurts most.  But they must also remember that discretion is the better part of valour. They don’t have to fear men but it is good to accept that perhaps they are physically stronger than women.

Rekha Dhondiyal
Senior Teacher, Study Hall School

STUDY HALL’S TRIBUTE TO NIRBHAY

She went to a mall to see a film like you and me.

On her way back home in a private bus,

Six ruffians defiled her, betraying her trust.

One by one, they molested and beat her.

Each one of them was worse than a cur.

There was no option but to bear the atrocity.

Her friend fought for her in the infamous city.

But the criminals were without scruples, remorseless.

They kicked her, injured her badly and tore her dress.

They threw them out of the bus, onto the pavement.

They lay there hurt and bruised, twisted and bent.

Help! Help!! They cried, almost yelped.

Folks passed by, scared, didn’t render help.

They remained there, half-dead in a state of undress

A pair of naked bodies, they looked such a mess!

A kind soul appeared out of the blue.

Said to himself,” Something I must do”.

Got a sheet and gave them dignity and their due.

From their sad state, he took a cue.

He took them to a nearby hospital.

The girl is critical, the doctors announced.

The boy recovered but she, back to life, couldn’t bounce.

She struggled for weeks; the will to live was strong.

The hospital stay was very painful and long.

She turned serious and was taken to Singapore.

She had now become like India’s folklore.

There, she unfortunately breathed her last.

In India flags were at half mast.

Called Nirbhay, she was hailed as a brave-heart.

Valiantly and beautifully, she had played her part.

In her death, we have found a cause to fight for.

No girl will ever face rape, blood or gore.

A young life snuffed out in the prime of her life.

Fight back, we will, never mind the pain and strife.

Dr. Urvashi Sahni
Founder, Study Hall Educational Foundation

The unspeakable horror of the brutal gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old girl in the capital of the world’s largest democracy, India, on December 16th has brought to the forefront the cruel, fatal, highly discriminatory gender norms prevalent in a country that now claims to be one of the worlds rising economic stars. A window has opened for responses that challenge these gender norms through critical dialogues and empowering education.

There is probably no woman in the country regardless of caste, class, religion or region who has not been the target of sexual harassment in some form or other at home, in the work place or on the street. India has one of the lowest sex ratios in the world, one of the highest rates of incestuous sex abuse, and the worst gender differential of children aged between 1 to 5-years-old such that girls are 75 percent more likely to die than boys. Approximately 1 million girls arekilled in the womb before they are born, 25,000 die due to dowry related deaths and the gory list goes on and on. We are not a nation that values our daughters, or one that knows how to keep them safe. They are neither safe in the womb before birth, nor at home or in the streets. And we do nothing about it! The nationwide protests protested just this. They were protesting against an apathetic administration, against sexist mindsets of the police, the judiciary, the legislature and society at large. People are demanding more just laws, speedier redressal in courts of law and conviction of criminals. What is noteworthy is the large number of students, men and women who were on the streets, braving lathi charges and tear gas to make their voice heard. This continuous, nationwide, mass protest for women’s rights – is not only unexpected, especially in a country like India, it is unprecedented and historic.

While I can only hang my head in shame at this awful crime, I will admit to a sense of exhilaration at the huge response it has generated among the nation’s youth, raising many gender related issues, leading to discussions and debates spanning both the length and breadth of the country.

The media is making sure the issues do not disappear from the spotlight as is often the case. It is engaging voices from all sectors of society including students, civil society, academia, political parties, the police, the judiciary and the government. Everywhere people are discussing gender discrimination, gender norms, and the sad status of women and girls in India. Nirbhaya’s brutal rape and murder should not pass in vain. We hope that this is the turning point. Everyone is being forced to sit up and take notice of the millions of girls who are being attacked, raped, killed every day all over the country.

Along with the strong measures that the government should take to ensure the safety of our women, as a long term measure we should be working at educating our young people towards more equitable gendered perceptions. Everyone is clamoring for a change of gendered mindsets and I add my voice to the uproar – we should include gender studies in the post-primary curricula of all schools for both boys and girls. This is one way of ensuring that future generations of men will grow up respecting women and their right to bodily and sexual integrity. If it is important to give our children an understanding of math and science, it is equally important for them to understand equality of gender. Educators have an important role to play in creating a safer, more just world for girls and women.

Studyhall Educational Foundation is launching a campaign called “India’s daughters: Unwanted, Unsafe, Unequal”. I invite the entire Studyhall family, students, alumni, teachers and parents to join us as we raise our voice and consciousness against gender violence and gender inequality in India in particular and in the world in general. The campaign will include online and offline activites which will be announced on our website. Please participate in the discussions by writing blogs and comments and encourage your family and friends to do the same. Let us all work together towards an egalitarian social order.

Rebecca Winthrop
Director, Center for Universal Education, The Brookings Institute

Protests continue in India, weeks after the horrific gang-rape of a 23-year old university student on December 16th and her subsequent death two weeks later – and rightly so, the incident itself was beyond the pale. A young couple in Delhi boarded a private bus after seeing a movie and instead of discussing character development and plot turns on the way home, the bus doors locked and they were subject to brutal attacks by the other passengers and driver as the bus drove around the city for over two hours. Witnesses driving by did nothing and the victims were eventually dumped out of the bus under an underpass.

But the awful details of this crime are not the main reason for the protests. Instead it is the deep and pervasive gender inequality in India of which this heinous act is a symbol. Girls and women are attacked every day and Indians across the country, particularly young people, are sick of it. Enough is enough they say. There are real reasons why half of all the girls in India don’t want to be girls, and it’s time to change.

If there is any silver lining to this tragedy, it is that the issue of gender equality is on everyone’s lips. Urvashi Sahni, an alumna of our girl’s education Global Scholars Program, is tracking this issue from India and writes that for one of the first times the debate on gender equality is “engaging voices from all sectors of society including students, civil society, academia, political parties, the police, the judiciary and the government.” Now the question remains: what will India do to improve the status of girls and women?

Much of the public discussion focuses on short and long-term solutions such as reforming the law enforcement systems, updating the legal code, supporting the women’s movement, developing new systems of accountability and, of course, having “greater dialogue about India’s patriarchal norms.” All of these things are important but it is the last that is perhaps the most difficult for policymakers and bureaucrats to tackle. Even if it is the most difficult, upending gender norms is perhaps the most fundamental thing needed for long-term sustainable change. Without transforming, in the deepest sense, how girls and women are valued in India, important interventions around such things as legal reforms and police training will end up in the problematic category of “necessary but not sufficient” for developing gender equality in society.

If done right, education can play an important role in redefining gender norms in India. Around the world, there have been numerous excellent examples of education changing people’s way of viewing the world and leading to new forms of behavior, ways of relating with others and ultimately social norms. Indeed, there have been decades of academic research on this topic, so much so that entire subfields of education theory and practice have developed (see for example Jack Mezirow and the field of transformative learning and Paulo Freire and the field of critical pedagogy).

India itself has good examples of education changing social norms towards gender equality. An interesting case of girls’ education programs run in the province of Uttar Pradesh demonstrates that schooling, if done right, can help change gender norms, even in the most marginalized societies. Founded by Urvashi Sahni, the Study Hall Foundation has demonstrated that at the same or lower cost per student as the government schools, their schools can educate girls in a way that enables them to both excel academically, but more importantly emerge as empowered young women. In one of their schools, Prerna, girls outperform their peers both within the province and across India. Ninety percent of Prerna girls complete their education to year 10, compared to below 30 percent nationally, and they do so while outperforming in virtually all subjects (in math and science the Prerna girls perform about 20 percentage points higher on exams than the national average). But most importantly, these girls are changing the gender norms in their communities. They are beginning to fight back when they or their peers are planned to be married off at too early an age. Through street protests and cajoling discussions, they have convinced their parents to keep them in school instead. They initiate community-wide discussions on violence against women. They apply for higher education scholarships and convince their families to let them go once they receive them (an incredibly 88 percent of the girls go on to higher education).

The success of this program is not because the students come from well-to-do families, they don’t (the average family income of students is $108 and 60 percent of their mothers and 40 percent of their fathers have never been to school). It is also not because teachers have higher qualifications or are better paid than government teachers. Rather, according to Mrs. Sahni, it’s because every day the girls’ talk about their worth, value and the issues they face around gender equality. “Gender equality needs to be taught, like math, science, and any other subject” says Sahni, who describes how in Prerna gender equality classes are regularly taught alongside a government curriculum. Then, she is quick to point out, teachers need to be encouraged and supported to fulfill their role as social change agents.

Now this is an idea that the Indian government would do well to listen to. It very well may be a center piece for transforming India’s “patriarchal norms”.

Dr. Urvashi Sahni
Founder, Study Hall Educational Foundation

The unspeakable horror of the brutal gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old girl in the capital of the world’s largest democracy, India, on December 16th has brought to the forefront the cruel, fatal, highly discriminatory gender norms prevalent in a country that now claims to be one of the worlds rising economic stars. A window has opened for responses that challenge these gender norms through critical dialogues and empowering education.

There is probably no woman in the country regardless of caste, class, religion or region who has not been the target of sexual harassment in some form or other at home, in the work place or on the street. India has one of the lowest sex ratios in the world, one of the highest rates of incestuous sex abuse,  and the worst gender differential of children aged between 1 to 5-years-old such that girls are 75 percent more likely to die than boys. Approximately 1 million girls arekilled in the womb before they are born, 25,000 die due to dowry related deaths and the gory list goes on and on. We are not a nation that values our daughters, or one that knows how to keep them safe.  They are neither safe in the before birth, or at home or in the streets.  And we do nothing about it! The nationwide protests are protesting just this. They are protesting against an apathetic administration, against sexist mindsets of the police, the judiciary and the legislature. They are demanding more just laws, speedier redressal in courts of law and conviction of criminals.  What is noteworthy is the large number of students, men and women who are on the streets, braving lathi charges (administered by stick) and tear gas to make their voice heard. It has now been over 20 days and the protests continue. This continuous, nationwide, mass protest in light of the gang rape- on the scale of the Tahrir square uprising – is not only unexpected, especially in a country like India, it is unprecedented and historic.

While I can only hang my head in shame at this awful crime, I will admit to a sense of exhilaration at the huge response it has generated among the nation’s youth, raising many gender related issues, leading to discussions and debates spanning both the length and I am an educator and the head of a school in Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh. Last night I went to light a candle in a city park.  Our school is closed for the winter, but many of our students were at the park lighting candles and engaging in critical dialogues.

The media is also making sure the issues do not disappear from the spotlight as is often the case. It is engaging voices from all sectors of society including students, civil society, academia, political parties, the police, the judiciary and the government.  Everywhere people are discussing gender discrimination, gender norms, and the sad status of women and girls in India. Nirbhaya’s (the pseudonym given to the deceased rape victim) brutal rape and murder should not pass in vain.  We hope that this is the turning point.  Everyone is being forced to sit up and take notice of the millions of girls who are being attacked, raped, killed every day all over the country.

Along with the strong measures that the government should take to ensure the safety of our women, as a long term measure we should be working at educating our young people towards more equitable gendered perceptions.  Everyone is clamoring for a change of gendered mindsets and I add my voice to the uproar – we should include gender studies in the post-primary curricula of all schools for both boys and girls. This is one way of ensuring that future generations of men will grow up respecting women and their right to bodily and sexual integrity. If it is important to give our children an understanding of math and science, it is equally important for them to understand equality of gender. Educators have an important role to play in creating a safer, more just world for girls and women.