The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c6.86

c6.86

In Hindu society at present, normally speaking, the marriage of a girl cannot be conveniently postponed to beyond the age of 18. We should, therefore, so draft the courses of female education that they should be over before that time. Primary education should take four years and be over at the age of 9. The secondary course should extend over six years only; if we adopt the mother tongue as the medium of instruction and slightly reduce the curricula in subjects like geography, mathematics and history, it will be possible to finish the course in six years' time. Hygiene, nursing, domestic science, music, sewing, knitting and house-decorations should figure prominently in the school curriculum as subjects alternative with mathematics, geography and the second language. The secondary course would be over at the age of 15. It should be followed by a college course extending over three years, which would be thus completed when the scholar is about 18. It will be easy to frame three years' courses in subjects like (A) Arts and Teaching, (B) Domestic science and Midwifery, (C) Music, Painting, and Photography, (D) Tailoring and Embroidery, which will be self-sufficient, and enable girl scholars not only to become efficient and cultured housewives but also to earn some money both in their spare time and in the case of need. In the last three groups there should be included a paper on Literature or History as well. Courses in Groups A and B will be obviously below the B. A., the B. T., or the M. B. B. S. standards. Those ladies, however, who have taken a diploma in these subjects, should be allowed to appear as private candidates for the B. A., B. T., and Intermediate M. B. B. S. examinations. This would remove the difficulty in the way of a girl scholar who has joined the women’s college, but who eventually desires to devote a few more years to education in order to attain the highest efficiency in her subject. The recasting of secondary and higher education of girls on the above lines would remove the defects in the present system and cater for the needs both of those who want to settle down in family life, as also of those who want to follow a career. It is of course true that a cut in the normal curriculum has been suggested in the courses of girls, but that is necessary in order to equip them for their normal functions of intelligent and efficient wives and mothers. As the matters stand to-day, girls have to pass the same examinations as boys and to learn house-keeping at home as well, all the while having less physical strength than their brothers. This certainly puts too much strain upon them and is injurious to the future well-being of the race.