Gender Education Become Compulsory in Telangana

At the graduate level the students of Telangana will now have to undertake Gender Education as it has been made compulsory by the Government. Telangana is the first state to introduce such compulsory gender education through the bilingual textbook titled, “Towards a World of Equals”.

Presently, the book is introduced on a pilot basis at the engineering colleges under Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University (JNTU-Hyderabad). It is not limited to the crime against women, but carries discussions regarding the gender in its composite form. The book will carry the issues related to sex selection to that of women’s contribution in the economy and politics of the country. It will give prominence to the work done by unacknowledged women writers of Telangana. Complex subjects like female-centric history and male-female relationships will also get discussed in detail through the book.

The book is written in such a manner and language that the under-graduate students do not feel hesitated to understand the content. The book carries women’s association with various political movements in and around the world, along with collections of visual teaching tools and documentary films. The book is presently being taught at the colleges, over the period of 14 weeks in a semester giving two classes per week. The credits earned in this paper at the end of the semester will get added to the overall GPA of the students.

A women panel of nine members has drafted the syllabus and content of the book. They have already taken four workshops for the groups ranging from 15 to 40 teachers and are expecting to take few more sessions in future. The book is generating interesting reactions and has provision for classroom discussions. The very first chapter of the book gives a topic of discussion saying “Are boys taught household work while growing up? Discuss your experience at home.”

One of the editors of the book A. Suneetha said, “We have received a lot of good feedback from teachers”, and is very optimistic about the results that this book can produce.