In just one calendar year (2015), 3,27,394 cases of violence against women were reported nationwide. Rape accounted for 34,651 of those crimes. Shouldn't these shocking figures be reason enough to introduce Gender Sensitisation as a compulsory subject in the school curriculum?
This is precisely the rationale behind an online petition to the HRD Ministry, filed under the Jago Re platform. The petition has already received 7,98,710 signatures, trending on social media.
Besides startling figures from the National Crime Records Bureau, the petition also banks on a plea for gender equality courses by Justice R Banumathi, who was a part of the bench that upheld the death penalty to four convicts in the Delhi gang rape.
The petition argues that right from childhood, children ought to be sensitised to respect women. A child should be taught to respect women in the same way he is taught to respect men. “Schoolteachers and parents should be trained to keep a watch on the actual behavioural patterns of the children so as to make them gender sensitized.”
The CBSE had developed a gender sensitivity kit for teachers to enable them to ensure unbiased participation of both boys and girls in the learning process. But to be effective, this had to go beyond guidelines and become a compulsory subject, the petition notes.
Gender sensitisation could not be a ‘subject with marks.’ The petition says it should go beyond prescribed books. “It needs to be a programme that is custom-developed with storytelling, experiential learning, and other empirical methods to imbibe the value in children, in a fun, interactive way.”
A survey conducted under the “Preactivist” campaign had clearly established how the curriculum change would help: An overwhelming 93% said teaching girls and boys to respect the other gender would make things safer for women. A high 41% felt the lack of respect towards women was one prime cause for the rising crimes.
Compulsory sports
Two medals. That is all the 120-strong Indian contingent could manage at the 2016 Olympics. Is that reason enough to resign to the country's recurring sporting mediocrity? No, says 92% of respondents of a recent nationwide survey, overwhelmingly pushing for sports as a compulsory subject in curriculum.
When there is no such thing as a sporting culture, games are bound to be reduced to just an 'extra-curricular' activity in schools. This is precisely what more than half of respondents want to change, with another online petition.
DH News Service
Published 02 August 2017, 21:30 IST