The Necessity of Women's Education in India

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The Necessity of Women’s Education in India | Essay by Puja Mondal Essay Advertisements: The Necessity of Women’s Education in India! For more than 2,000 years, from about BC 300, there was practically no education for women in India. Only a few women of the upper castes and upper classes were given some education at home. But, even here, there was tremendous social resistance. Literacy of women at that time was looked upon as a disgrace. The notion of providing education to female children never entered into the minds of parents. A superstitious feeling was alleged to exist in the majority of the Hindu families that a girl taught to read and write will soon become a widow after marriage. According to the report of the National Committee on Women’s Education (1959), ‘It cannot be denied that the general picture of the education of women was the most unsatisfactory and women received practically no formal instruction whatever, except for the little domestic instruction that was available to the daughter of the upper class families.’ It was the American mission which first started a school for girls in Bombay (now Mumbai) in 1824. According to the figures available, by 1829 within five years as many as 400 girls were enrolled in this school. Then, in the first decade of the 19th century, with the efforts of the missionaries as well as the Indian voluntary organizations, some girls’ primary schools, particularly in Bombay, Bengal and Madras states, started. The government also took the responsibility to promote primary education in general and that of the girls in particular. However, government efforts could not go a long way due to the Indian War of Independence of 1857. After the war municipal committees and other local bodies were encouraged to open primary schools. In the year 1870, training colleges for women were established for the
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