2012
ended on a grievous and brutal note with the Delhi gang rape and 2013
is upon us with the possibilities and potential a new year always
promises. The public outrage we have witnessed country-wide, the
several thoughtful analyses of it by various writers are indicative
of a nation at a societal cross-roads. A collective conscience has
been sparked by one gruesome incident that sharply silhouettes the
deep-seated misogyny in the average Indian male who continues
clinging to archaic, biased attitudes towards women. It makes us
wonder about how majority of men have grown up with such a humanity
deficit and how we have condoned it so far ! Of course women
themselves are guilty too of perpetrating it. For instance very few
educated women actually challenge the status quo and society's
diktats regarding what women should do and shouldn't do.
While
legal proceedings have begun against the rapists, apart from the
obvious questions regarding the nature of penalty – death or life
and the speed with which justice will be meted, for those of us who
are in school education – a larger question confronts us – Are we
spawning a generation of young people who are lacking in feelings of
sensitivity, empathy, respect for all fellow-beings, especially
women?
Growing
social trends, suggest that our young reflect contemporary Indian
society – where community is a religious rather than a human
entity; progress is acquisition – of power or products; where
money is valued over morals, where equity and ahimsa are just useful
public rhetoric – they don't need to lived in their true spirit. We
are very comfortable with the disconnect between what we preach and
what we practice! This hypocritical, even schizophrenic quality to
how we Indians go about our daily lives, managing multiple
conflicting realities with the ease of donning and shedding clothes,
has dangerous repercussions. One immediate fall out is that a child's
consciousness is irreparably influenced by the contradictory messages
that adults around him give. Parents, teachers, relatives will advise
children on the importance of certain values, but their behaviour
could belie the same values completely. Personal integrity is rarely
a priority. So children, both at school and at home, live their
lives lacking in authentic experiences and expression. To give one
small example, if a child doesn't wish to go to school, there will be
an adult – parent or teacher who will insist that she must go to
school if she wishes to learn, but they will rarely stop to listen to
why the child is really feeling negative about school. In numerous
ways, small and big, we routinely discredit a child's point of view.
We rarely dignify and validate a young person's opinions and
feelings, especially when they are in dissonance with ours. Another
ramification of our national propensity for low personal integrity,
is that we as a nation tend to look for simplistic solutions for
deep-seated systemic or sociological problems.
Even
educationists and text-book writers, who should know better,
mistakenly think that if there's a social evil that needs to be
addressed by schools, the solution is a simple matter of including
additional chapters on human rights and gender-sensitisation in their
social studies textbooks. The Union Minister for Human Resources and
the Central Board of Secondary Education have recently made such an
announcement. In short, if something is found wanting in young
people, just add it to the existing syllabus! The real purpose is
defeated and serious social concerns are reduced to a few mandatory
topics that need to be learnt by Indian school goers. This
filling-the-empty-vessel syndrome afflicts our entire education
system. Teachers see it as a further curricular overload and the
teaching is mechanical and exam-based, despite the essentially
experiential nature of the subjects. The young learner's head and
heart are in the process left untouched.
So if
young people are wanting in qualities that make for a humane society
we adults are to blame. The solution is for us to set right the
humanity deficit that exists in society – by changing our own mind
sets. We need to learn to care, listen and empathise with what
children and young people experience as they grow up. If we cared
enough and listened, we would know the right questions to ask and if
we asked thoughtful questions, children would feel safe enough to
open up. When children open up, they will speak out. And speaking
out is key to any change – personal or societal. When young people
speak out they are able to 'break their silence', give voice to their
thoughts, express their feelings of joy and sorrow, of being hurt or
misunderstood. Speaking out would help test, question, clarify and
evolve their values and belief systems about customs, traditions,
biases and even gender relations.
But
here's the catch - authentic speaking will happen in schools only
when teachers are able to suspend judgement and ask questions, when
they are able to listen genuinely and empathetically, when they have
a caring and contemporary world view. And majority of our teachers
today are just not equipped to help a child speak out. So, adding a
subject called Gender Studies is no magic wand that will swiftly
change social stereotypes. We need to begin with the attitudes of the
teachers, we need to support and strengthen their abilities to live
and be role models for social change. Because when teachers are the
change we wish to see, our young will follow suit, regardless of
having a subject or two less.
