A grandmother in 2008 takes her newborn grandson for his inoculations while her college-educated daughter is spending the traditional three months after delivery at her motherâs home. To my surprise, the grandmother accompanied only by her infant grandson insures that he receives all the requisite inoculations and vaccines including the hepatitis vaccine. Would she have had the skills to know about the appropriate inoculations and vaccines and the initiative to take her infant grandson to the physician without some education?
One generation earlier in a Karnataka village, members of a caste emphasizing education had immunized their children against pertussis, while women of a caste without an emphasis on education believed that the goddess Mariamma caused pertussis. For these women, worshipping Mariamma was the only prevention and treatment. No child of the educated caste contracted pertussis, in contrast to every child of the uneducated caste. This is another example of the impact of womenâs education on the health of their families. Since the pertussis outbreak, children of all castes in this South India village have received inoculations . Moreover, education has become available to all castes in this village.
Both of these examples highlight the importance of mothersâ education to disease prevention and improved child health (http://âwww.âuniteforsight.âorg/âwomen-children-course/âhealth-promotion-women-children; http://âwww.âprb.âorg/âPublications/âMedia-Guides/â2011/âgirls-education-fact-sheet.âaspx). Studies have shown that reduced maternal and child deaths, improved child health, a later age at marriage, decreased fertility, and improved nutrition are among the benefits of education for women and girls (http://âwww.âprb.âorg/âPublications/âMedia-Guides/â2011/âgirls-education-fact-sheet.âaspx, accessed February 24, 2018). In this volume, Sarah LeVine (Chapter 2) refers to a prior study she conducted with Robert LeVine et al. (2012) on the impact of womenâs education and childrenâs health .
Benefits from education also include improved income potential for women. Women with a single year of primary school have salary increments 10â20% above those with no education. Women with a secondary school education earn 15â25% more than an uneducated woman (Behreman 2006: 147; Summers 1992; Semba 2008: 322â328; Vandemoortele and Delamonica 2000; De Walque 2004; Psacharopoulos and Patrinos 2004: 111â134 all cited in http://âwww.âprb.âorg/âPublications/âMedia-Guides/â2011/âgirls-education-fact-sheet.âaspx, accessed February 24, 2018).
The purpose of this collection, which emphasizes education throughout India, Sri Lanka, and Nepal, is to examine its impact in different geographical areas and socio-cultural groups. There are similarities and differences in the different regions. In addition to the impact on women and families, education provides professional opportunities for members of all social groups. In many places, education has prompted a shift from a caste to a class structure (Fuller and Narasimhan 2014; Ullrich 2017). The move from rural to urban areas makes possible a professional identity that supersedes caste and may extend to the home and to alterations in marriage patterns. Some younger people, while respecting their elders, have their own belief systems that allow their adaptation to the recognition of talent among those of other castes and religious groups. They credit their respect of others to their education. The chapters in this book will enable the reader to determine to what extent the impact of education has been local or extends throughout the regions represented. Moreover, the tensions which differential educational opportunities pose for women and members of different castes and socioeconomic groups bring to the surface resentments as Shailaja Paik (Chapter 6) and A.R. Vasavi (Chapter 7) illustrate. Geoffrey L. Burkhart (Chapter 8) in his focus on Christians presents another path for Dalit education, a path providing opportunities and an exit from the caste system.
An important question is, whether these advantages are available to all children in the three countries covered by this collection. The answer is a qualified yes. In India , there is compulsory education from the ages of 6â14 1 ; in Sri Lanka, from 5 to 13 2 ; and according to the Nepal constitution, each person has the right to education in his/her native language until the secondary level. 3 Nepal, unlike India and Sri Lanka, included the right to education in its constitution. Special laws insure governmental support for the right to education in India and Sri Lanka. The contributions to this volume suggest that with the exception of Sri Lanka , the progress in education has fallen short of the goals stated in the relevant constitutions and laws.
One might think the benefits of education were most obvious to those in Nepal, as the right to education was included in its 2007 interim constitution. The Constitution of India became effective in 1950 and that of Sri Lanka, in 1978. The policy focus on education and appreciation of its broad social advantages may have occurred after the drafting of the Constitutions of India and Sri Lanka . Deborah Winslow (Chapter 12) attributes the early interest in Sri Lankan education to British colonial policy . As in Sri Lanka, during the colonial period the British introduced western education in India. During the colonial period in India, the British introduced education with the assumption that it would lead to compliant subjects. During this same period, missionaries started schools. The missionary boarding and day schools in South India, which the Church Missionary Society and the Scottish Church Society established, were especially successful. Rather than supporting colonial subjectsâ subordination, western education provided new vistas and awareness of opportunities, which led to activism and rebellion (Rosin, Chapter 10).
Western education was congruent with Muslim beliefs, which held that every Muslim should learn to read their religious texts. This provided a sharp contrast with Hindu religious education. Hindu Brahmin men were traditionally designated as the guardians of Hindu religious texts. Brahmin priests often tutored boys for a set number of years for induction into the priesthood. At times, a Brahmin would host a religious school in his home for a month or more to instruct the Brahmin boys of a village. Brahmins initially became literate in order to read the sacred texts. Men of other twice-born castes had a more practical education.
Women and Shudras 4 lacked the ritual purity to learn and read sacred literature. In a 1960sâ South India village, elders scolded younger women for reading during their period of menstrual taboo, as the elders believed touching books would offend Saraswati , the goddess of learning. This example of womenâs inherent impurity failed to discourage these women from reading, as they disagreed with their elders. Indeed, by keeping a library of these womenâs favorite authors in my room, I may have alleviated their boredom during their ritual pollution, as well as unwittingly provided incentive for their questioning their inferiority with respect to the gods.
Some fathers and husbands taught their wives and daughters to read. Women, among whom Rassundari Devi is an example, taught themselves to read. âMany of the women who learned to read before the 1870s have reported hiding their accomplishments from other women 5 (Forbes 2008: 58â59, reprinted from 1996).â Occasionally, Shudras also became literate . Unlike Hindus who limited formal education to men of the twice-born category, Muslim women read religious texts. âMuslim girls were expected to learn the Quran and some accounting skills, but the strict seclusion observed by upper-class families prohibited daughters from attending schools (Forbes 2008: 58, reprinted from 1996).â
Formal school education, the focus of this book, involves literacy . However, traditional education was oral. The sharing of resources among members of ...