Why Girls-Only Colleges Are Still Relevant in Modern India. While many people don’t like the idea of making a college gender-specific, there are also people in a large quantity that think this is a great idea. There can be many reasons why in India we need girls-only colleges that provide equal opportunities and equal education as co-ed colleges and all-boys colleges. There are many stories of women telling why the girls-only colleges are the best for women. In this article we will discuss the topic “Why Girls-Only Colleges Are Still Relevant in Modern India.”
Why Girls-Only Colleges Are Still Relevant in Modern India?
There is a whole lot of history about why there were girls-only colleges established in the first place. People think that because of the taboos, if the girls go to study in a college, they will meet boys and will be dragged into wrong things. While others think that education will corrupt the minds of women and will make them rebellious and not fit enough to be good wives and mothers.
Nowadays, the world and the thinking of people are changing. Women’s education has become a significant part of every society. Women’s education is important because the contribution of women in the economic, social, and financial sectors brings developmental growth to the country. But many people still think that the girls and boys should not be educated together. This is why most parents of a girl child want their daughters to study in a girls-only school and college.
Women’s colleges have successfully managed to create a space outside the male gaze that nourished women as harbingers of change. Opponents of single-gender colleges often claim that all-women educational institutions foster gender ignorance. This can affect one’s ability to work with the opposite gender and the ability to form meaningful relationships with them.
An article on Huffington Post states that only 2% of colleges in the US are exclusive to women, yet more than 20% of women in Congress and 30% of rising women in corporate belong to women-only colleges.
Statements by Other People
Urvashi Kapila, a first-year student from Miranda House, Delhi, stated that, “It is important that we first elevate our society to a level where women feel free and secure to conduct themselves. The societal change has to come first, where women from early in their lives are allowed to make their own choices and be assertive. The reason I chose Miranda was its academic ranking, but I realize there are advantages to being in an all-women’s college. Here, I feel comfortable expressing myself and competing in various areas without giving a second thought. The strength and freedom I discovered within myself after being in this college makes the institution of women-only colleges still relevant to me.”
Samrat Sengupta, a PhD Scholar at the Centre for Studies in Social Science, Kolkata & Asst Professor of English at Kharagpur College, said, “In this heyday of women’s emancipation in India when more and more women are participating in the global workforce with their male coworkers, women-only colleges can only endorse a gendered ordering of public space, standing in the way of equalizing men and women. It would continue with the sexist assumptions of men and women as different, and on account of this difference, several restrictions can be imposed on women. We all know whenever an untoward incident happens to any woman, how society pushes back women to the confines of home and domesticity to keep them safe. Isn’t the idea of women’s college a similar confinement that, in the name of protecting women, separates them from the larger public space?”
Author’s Views
Now, many people would think that men and women should be equally treated and there should be no gender-specific colleges. But, looking at the situation of India in present time, I think that the all-women colleges are a must. Many parents will stop the education of their daughter, thinking she will go to a place full of boys. The education is a significant point of education, but for most parents, education is not as significant as the safety of their girl.
There are still so many girls who are able to attend colleges only because they are girls-only. The girls-only colleges are still relevant in India because of the mentality of people, which can be good as well as bad. The idea of girls-only colleges is not a bad one if it ensures the safety of a girl. However, it cannot be denied that all-women colleges take off where several co-ed institutions fail.