Month: October 2021

Hello and welcome to Mind the Gap, a newsletter that adds perspective to the gender developments of the week.

As schools tentatively return to physical classes, the big questions are: How much learning has been lost? (HT PHOTO)

THE BIG STORY

Back to school

Do girls face a disproportionate impact, given the existing gender gaps? What happens to them when education ends? (Waseem Andrabi / Hindustan Times)

When K, the younger daughter of parents who work as household help near Solan, Himachal Pradesh, enrolled in 2019 to do her Bachelor of Arts (General) through the distance-learning programme of the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), an open university, the pandemic that brought the world to a standstill was still unknown.

She attended three political science classes before India went into lockdown. A year later she cleared the first year on the basis of her assignments. But when the second wave hit, her computer screen went blank: No classes. No study material. No assignments. No communication. She wrote to IGNOU in July to find out what was going on. The reply came within a few days: Go to your study centre in Solan (7 km from home), check out the Facebook page, and wait for updates. She went and found nothing there. On September 1, online classes began, but were conducted in a language unfamiliar to her, she says. On October 27, she received a message that the exams would be held in January 2022.

As schools tentatively return to physical classes, the big questions are: How much learning has been lost? Do girls face a disproportionate impact, given the existing gender gaps? What happens to them when education ends?

Many of the faultlines in learning outcomes, as documented by the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), predate Covid-19. Even before the pandemic, only 20.9% of class 3 students in government schools and 40.6% in private schools could read a class 2 text. With schools shut for 18 months, how would these already weak foundational skills be affected?

The simple answer: We don’t know. There is no consolidated data on the number of children who left school since March 2020, when Covid-19 began its insidious spread. There is no data that tells us whether more girls than boys dropped out. But bits and pieces are emerging. In June 2021, the ministry of education estimated that 3.5 million children are out of school, including those who had dropped out during the pandemic.

Another survey of 1,400 children in underprivileged households across 16 states and Union Territories conducted in August by a team led by economist Jean Dreze, found that only 8% of children in rural households attended regular online classes. Further, 37% were not studying at all, and only half were able to read more than a few words. The indicators were far worse for children from Dalit, Adivasi and underprivileged communities, the study found.

How do you ensure learning for children from families who’ve had low education and lack resources such as smartphones? (HT PHOTO)

The “ASER Wave 1 2020” survey of 52,227 rural households conducted by phone in September 2020 found a shift of students across all grades from private to government schools. With schools closed, children were relying on resources — parents, technology, and study material — available at home. Children with parents who didn’t study beyond primary school relied on elder siblings. Only a third of enrolled students received learning materials or activities from their teachers during the week preceding the survey. But only 18.3% of government school students, 28.7% of children in private schools, watched videos or other pre-recorded content online.

What happens to girls when they stop going to school? Activists say they are either pulled into household work or forced into marriage. “A bright and motivated girl can fight, but my real worry is about girls in the seventh or eighth grade who might not be that motivated to study,” says Rukmini Banerjee, CEO of Pratham who just won the 2021 Yidan Prize for education development, the world’s highest education accolade.

The real impact of Covid-19 on education is not visible. “There are undercurrents which we can only surmise,” says Banerjee. The challenges are many. How do you ensure a heterogeneous classroom, given the wide gaps in learning during the past 18 months? How do you monitor who goes back to school and who

And how do you ensure learning for children from families who’ve had low education and lack resources such as smartphones?

“Student enrolment is no longer a good indicator. The more important question is, ‘Are they attending school and are they attending regularly?’” asks Banerjee.

The real impact of Covid-19 on education is not visible (Waseem Andrabi / Hindustan Times)

Gender Tracker

Sex ratio: Delhi’s sex ratio at birth for 2020 is 933 females for every 1,000 males, up from 920 in 2019, but still lower than 1,004 recorded in 2018. Haryana declined from 922 in 2020 to 906 as of September 2021. Uttarakhand has the country’s worst sex ratio at 840, according to Niti Aayog. Arunachal Pradesh has the country’s best sex ratio at 1,085

QUOTE UNQUOTE

DID YOU ASK WHETHER THE GIRL WAS A

MINOR OR A MAJOR? IF THE GIRL WAS A

MAJOR, THEN WOULD IT BE HER WISH OR HER

PARENTS’ WISH THAT WOULD PREVAIL?

These words are Justice Mukta Gupta’s of the Delhi High Court who came down hard on Uttar Pradesh Police for arresting the father and brother of a man from Delhi after he married a woman against her family’s wishes.

Stories you might have missed

Opened doors: A third of the candidates, or 178,000, who will appear for the National Defence Academy exams on November 14 are women, reports Deeksha Bhardwaj. On August 18, the Supreme Court in a landmark order opened the doors of the academy to women.

Personal autonomy: Live-in relationships are a part and parcel of life and should be viewed through the lens of personal autonomy rather than societal morality, observed the Allahabad High Court. Read Jitendra Sarin’s report here.

Ethics: In a separate ruling, Justice Rahul Chaturvedi of the same high court in Allahabad observed that consensual sex with a major is not an offence but is “unethical, immoral and against established Indian norms.” Justice Rahul Chaturvedi made the observations while rejecting a bail application of a gang rape accused, reports Jitendra Sarin.

Justice Chaturvedi said that it was the duty of the man, claiming to be the boyfriend of a minor girl, to protect his girlfriend when she was being sexually harassed by the other co-accused. “The moment the applicant submits that the victim is his beloved, it was his binding duty to protect the dignity, honour and reputation of his girlfriend. If a girl is [a] major one, then to have sex with her consent is not an offence, but certainly, it is unethical and immoral and also not in consonance with the established social norms of the Indian society,” observed the court.

Women’s participation: The National Human Rights Commission has asked the government to increase women’s participation at international forums and events relating to peace negotiations, global security, foreign trade and the climate crisis. Read Neeraj Chauhan’s story here.

WOMEN OF THE WORLD

Cuomo charged: After around a dozen women accused Andrew Cuomo, then the governor of New York, of sexual harassment, Cuomo — who resigned in August — has now been formally charged by a city court for groping a female aide “for the purposes of degrading and satisfying his sexual desires”. Cuomo will have to appear in court on November 17.

Andrew Cuomo (REUTERS)

Girls night in: Thousands of women stayed away from bars and pubs in nearly 50 locations across the United Kingdom on the night of October 27 calling for tougher measures on drink spiking and spiking by injection.

Defending Canada: Of Tamil-Punjabi heritage, Anita Anand has been appointed Canada’s minister of national defence, only the second woman to hold the post since Kim Campbell in the 1990s reports Anirudh Bhattacharyya. She replaced Harjit Sajjan after he was criticised for the institutional sexual misconduct crisis that erupted in the Canadian armed forces under his watch.

Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Governor General Mary May Simon pose with Minister of National Defence Anita Anand (REUTERS)

That’s it for this week. If you have a tip or information on gender-related developments that you would like to share write to me at: namita.bhandare@gmail.com

Namita Bhandare writes on gender

The views expressed are personal

Marika Gabriel contributed to the making of this page.

It’s time we celebrate love as the purest emotion between two individuals. It’s time we celebrate our Constitution for promising equality for all

At its core lies a clash between constitutional guarantees and societal morality (Amal KS/HT PHOTO)

In a week when the Delhi High Court (HC) is hearing a clutch of petitions seeking legal recognition of same-sex marriage, it is telling that Dabur recalled an ad celebrating Karwa Chauth. The ad gave fresh offence to the usual suspects with its new twist to the old festival where instead of a wife fasting for her husband’s long life, two women fast for each other. Madhya Pradesh home minister Narottam Mishra threatened legal action leading to Dabur’s apology for “hurting people’s sentiments”.

The Delhi HC was hearing why same-sex marriage should be recognised. The government, represented by solicitor-general Tushar Mehta, insists that marriage in India is permissible only between a biological man and a biological woman. Appearing for one of the petitioners, advocate Karuna Nundy counters that the “right to marry a person of one’s choice is integral” to the Constitution, as ruled by the Supreme Court (SC) in Shafin Jahan v Asokan KM.

The petitioners want the Special Marriage Act to give the same human, fundamental, and constitutional rights to the LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transpersons, queer) community. After the apex court decriminalised Section 377, the next logical step would be to extend the rights enjoyed by the heterosexual community to all. “The principle of law has been settled. Now we need to apply it to different situations,” said advocate Saurabh Kirpal who is representing a group of professionals, one of whom was compelled to leave India to marry the person he loved.

At its core lies a clash between constitutional guarantees and societal morality. Same-sex marriage is recognised in 30 countries. Within Asia, Taiwan became the first country to enact marriage equality in 2019. A survey in 2020 in Japan found 78.4% of people favoured same-sex marriage. Thailand has approved a bill that recognises same-sex civil partnerships.

Societies and the way people live are not fixed. “Unnatural sex” was once a crime. Now it is not. In a country where 93% of marriages are arranged in line with caste, community and socio-economic endogamy, society must have the flexibility to extend the idea of love between any two individuals even if it goes against the grain of majoritarian custom.

Fortunately, the courts have so far stood for love. In petitions filed by inter-caste and inter-religious couples seeking protection, the SC has consistently sided with individuals, often against their own families that seek to punish errant sons and daughters with ostracisation, and, worse, “honour” killings.

Tradition was the excuse to exclude Hindu daughters from inheritance and subject Muslim wives to the tyranny of triple talaq. It did not stop the courts from pushing for change.

It’s time we celebrate love as the purest emotion between two individuals. It’s time we celebrate our Constitution for promising equality for all. Bound to uphold the Constitution, there is only one way for courts to rule: Equal marriage rights for equal citizens.

Namita Bhandare writes on gender

The views expressed are personal

Hello and welcome to Mind the Gap, a newsletter that adds perspective to the gender developments of the week.

Only 268 of 2,839 Congress candidates — just 9.4% — who have contested a state election since 2017 were women (ANI)

THE BIG STORY

Priyanka’s great gamble

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s promise to field 40% women candidates in the Uttar Pradesh (UP) assembly election has sparked hope in a political landscape stubbornly dominated by men.

Priyanka’s announcement goes against the grain of the Congress’s own shabby record, write Gilles Vernier and Avishek Jha. Only 268 of 2,839 Congress candidates — just 9.4% — who have contested a state election since 2017 were women. That’s a long way off from the Congress’s public commitment to 33% in assemblies and Parliament.

Why it matters: Certainly, the earmarking of such a large number of seats in a significant assembly election by a mainstream political party is unprecedented. In 2019, Odisha chief minister, Naveen Patnaik, and West Bengal chief minister, Mamata Banerjee, had fielded 33% and 42% women candidates respectively in the parliamentary elections. State elections are different because there is a greater connect between candidates and their constituencies and, therefore, less incentive to experiment, says Gilles Vernier, co-director of the Trivedi Centre for Political Data at Ashoka University.

Women count: Priyanka’s announcement comes at a time when women voters are turning out in record numbers, even outnumbering men voters in states like Bihar, Himachal Pradesh and Manipur. But the moot question: Do women voters vote for women candidates?

Do women voters vote for women candidates? (ANI)

“There is no simplistic causal relationship,” says Vernier. In the last West Bengal election, for instance, women voted so overwhelmingly for Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress that “it would be accurate to say women defeated the BJP,” says Vernier. But women also vote for parties that do poorly in terms of fielding women candidates, Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party, and Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United), for instance.

On the other hand: UP is essentially a low-stake election for the Congress that won only seven of the 114 seats it contested in the 2017 assembly elections. Other questions remain: Will the Congress be as generous to women candidates in other forthcoming elections in Punjab and Jharkhand? Will it find enough women — and not just daughters, wives, and proxies of powerful men — to contest in UP? Vadra seemed unfazed. If it were up to her, she would field 50% women, she said at the press conference to announce the move. And if they lose? “We’ll field them again. If not this time, they’ll be stronger next time.”

And yet: Despite the caveats, Priyanka’s announcement is a welcome move that “puts pressure on the whole ecosystem,” says Tara Krishnaswamy, co-founder of Political Shakti, a pressure group dedicated to improving women’s political representation. It marks the first step towards improving representative democracy, she said. More significantly, she said, it improves democracy.

THE BACK STORY

Over 700 Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) alumni have written a letter to the authorities in IIT (Guwahati) asking for an uncompromising stand on gender-based violence, reports Utpal Parashar.

Earlier this year, the institute was in the news for all the wrong reasons following a rape that is said to have taken place on campus. On the night of March 28, a 19-year-old second-year female student was found unconscious outside her hostel. She was taken to the hospital nearly two hours later where a medical examination supposedly found evidence of sexual assault following the administration of a drug.

IIT-Guwahati issued a statement describing an “unfortunate incident involving a female student” and set up a fact-finding committee. That committee submitted its report on April 2 and a day later, the prime accused, Utsav Kadam, was arrested, and four other students questioned for their involvement in the crime, especially the deliberate delay in calling for medical help in an apparent cover-up. On April 4, Kadam was suspended from IIT-Guwahati.

But while granting him bail in August, high court judge Ajit Borthakur observed that although there was a clear prima facie case against him, he and the woman student were “talented students” and the “state’s future assets”. The judge’s gratuitous observation led to an uproar, bringing to mind another comment made in 2017 by the Punjab and Haryana High Court observations while granting bail to three former students of the OP Jindal Global University convicted of gang-raping a fellow student. The two-judge bench of Justices Mahesh Grover and Raj Shekhar Atri suspended the earlier conviction while noting that the rape survivor was “promiscuous” and had “casual sexual encounters”.

The IIT-Guwahati alumni letter comes as a grim reminder that institutions, including the judiciary, have to do better while assuring timely justice to rape survivors. This does not include the passing of “stray” comments on either the accused’s supposed value to society or the survivor’s past sexual history.

IIT-Guwahati issued a statement describing an “unfortunate incident involving a female student” and set up a fact-finding committee (Representative Image) (Bloomberg)

IIT-Guwahati finally expelled Utsav Kadam in September.

DATA POINT

Making the news: The overall percentage of women in the news as subjects and sources in India fell from 21% in 2015 to 14% in 2020 across print, TV, and radio.

Source: Who Makes the News by the Global Media Monitoring Project (read the report here).

GENDER TRACKER

Chennai Express: With the swearing-in of four new judges, including one woman, on October 20, the Madras High Court now has 13 women judges, the most for any high court in the country.

QUOTE UNQUOTE

“I HOPE MANY WIDOWS LIKE ME GET JUSTICE.

IF WE REMAIN SILENT, THEN NO ONE WILL

COME FORWARD TO HELP”

These words were said by Vimla Govind, the wife of a sanitation worker who died cleaning in 2019 after entering a septic tank in Mumbai, after the Bombay High Court ordered financial compensation of ₹10 lakh each to her and two other women whose husbands died that day.

Stories you might have missed

Workforce: Women comprise over half of 40 million workers of the country’s informal economy who registered on a recently launched national portal, reports Zia Haq. There is no official data on the numbers employed by the unorganised sector, but it is believed that 91% of women in paid jobs are in the informal sector.

Officers: The Supreme Court told the government to grant permanent commission to 39 of 72 women officers before November 1, writes Abraham Thomas.

Juvenile offenders: Three boys aged between eight and 11, apparently addicted to watching porn on their phones, killed a six-year-old girl after she resisted their attempts to sexually assault her in Assam’s Nagaon district, reports Utpal Parashar.

WOMEN OF THE WORLD

Najla Bouden Ramadhane, a 63-year-old engineering professor, was appointed Tunisia’s prime minister, a first for the Arab world. The move follows July’s “coup” when President Kais Saied seized most powers, leaving questions as to how much real power the prime minister will wield.

Najla Bouden Ramadhane (AFP)

Barbados has just elected Dame Sandra Mason to be its first-ever president as it prepares to become a republic. Dame Sandra has been governor-general of her country since 2018.

Dame Sandra Mason (AFP)

That’s it for this week. If you have a tip or information on gender-related developments that you would like to share write to me at: namita.bhandare@gmail.com.

Namita Bhandare writes and reports on gender

The views expressed are personal

Marika Gabriel contributed to the making of this page.