Women Development through Education: A Comparative Study of Two Himalayan States based on Survey

The need to bring women into the mainstream of development had been a national concern since independence. Article 15 of the Indian Constitution prohibits any discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex etc and article 15 (3) however clarifies that this provision will not prevent the state from making any special provision for women and children. Soon after independence when planned economic development became a necessity for increased production, employment and for abolition of poverty, the Third and Fourth year plans accorded a high priority to education of women. The Fifth year plan supported the economic development, employment and training for women as the principal focus for the overall socio-economic development of the society at large. Immediately after independence, the Government of India forms a major national commission focusing on higher education known as the University Education Commission. This Commission was headed by Dr. S. Radhakrishnan. The major contribution of the commission was that it recommended that the number of womens colleges in the country should be increased. There were less than a hundred womens colleges in the country when the commission submitted its report. Today there are more than fifteen hundred. In 1958- 59 the government of India appointed a National Commission for Women. The commission recommended special hostels, syllabus for women and specified that these syllabus should focus on creating the right attitude among them. The recommendations of the commission led to the establishment of the National Council for Girls, the establishment of a comprehensive Department Plan for Women to the allocation of special funds for women in the Central and State Ministries of Education and the establishment of separate unit for the educational needs of women. It looked carefully into the needs for the occupation in which women were preferred and pointed out that qualified women were needed in large numbers to function as pre- primary school teachers, nurses, midwives, women doctors and social workers. On this basis, it recommended the promotion of education for women in these fields.