Distance education for women's equality: an Indian perspective
Kanwar, A.S.
Journal of Distance Education 5(2): 49-58
1990
Document Number: 305199
In spite of the fact the women's participation in all spheres of life has increased in post-independence India, there has been little concomitant change in their social and economic status. This article examines the potential contribution of distance education to raising women's status. Past policies relating to women are criticized on the grounds that they were directed towards improving female status by means of subsidies and various other ad hoc measures. What is really needed is an effort to change the relations of production, thereby subsuming the gender relations that prevail in Indian society. The role of the Indira Gandhi National Open University, (IGNOU), in promoting educational programmes which bring about social change is analysed in this context. It is believed that IGNOU can play a valuable interventionist part in the cultural life of the community by instituting a media-monitoring cell that will scrutinize and censor the sexism apparent in mass media. The establishment of a Women's Studies Centre is regarded as particularly promising in terms of exploding the so-called myth of the 'feminine mystique' by teaching specifically structured courses for this purpose.