The old African proverb, ‘If you educate a man, you educate an individual. But if you educate a woman, you educate a nation’ aptly sums up the importance of educating and empowering women, and there is near complete unanimity on this issue. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said when it comes to implementing women education and empowerment projects, which are often hindered by antiquated social customs and the medieval belief that a woman’s role is restricted to only housekeeping, bearing and rearing children. To make matters worse, emancipation of women through education and skill development is perceived as a threat in many male dominant societies, and hence discouraged.

Statistics of women education in J&K aren’t very encouraging. As per the last census held in 2011, while the literacy rate in Union Territories of J&K and Ladakh was 68.74 per cent, literacy amongst women was just 58.01 percent, with the high school dropout rate of women being much higher than that of their male counterparts. What is most disquieting is that on converting these percentages into figures, it emerges that one out of every three women in this region can’t read or write, which by any standards in the twenty first century, is absolutely unacceptable.
Even though a National Sample Survey on education held in erstwhile state of J&K during the period from July 2017 to June 2018 indicates a definite improvement in the overall literacy rate and stands at 77.3 percent, the female literacy is only 68 percent. Considering the fact that National Sample Survey deems anyone of the age of seven and above who can read and write a simple message in any language with understanding as being literate and percentage of such persons as literacy rate, the data on female literacy in J&K as well as Ladakh reveals serious deficiencies. Luckily, this sorry state of affairs is being addressed through institutional intervention.
Last year, a scholarship scheme to finance education of meritorious girls from poor families was announced in professional disciplines like medicine, engineering, skill acquisition in Industrial Training Institutes [ITI] and humanities that would contribute to nation-building. This is indeed a welcome step in empowering the womenfolk of J&K and was appropriately launched on International Women’s Day. This initiative has been named ‘Super-75 scholarship scheme’ to mark ‘Azaadi Ka Amrut Mahotsav- India @ 75’ and has many positives.
Firstly, this scholarship isn’t a largesse being doled out on personal whims and fancies; it’s based purely on individual merit and as such will serve as an incentive for those who are deserving, but don’t have the financial means to achieve their professional ambitions. However, Super-75 Scholarship isn’t the only scheme to bolster women empowerment in J&K.
‘Tejaswini’- a scheme under the ‘Mission Youth’ programme has also been launched and provides financial assistance of upto 5 lakhs to girls in the age group of 18 to 35 years to start their own business. Mission Youth will not only provide 10 percent of the project cost but will also pay the annual interest of the loan as well as facilitate access of women entrepreneurs to the global market and provide them details about innovative products.
In order to enhance the literacy rate in J&K, tuition fees for girl students upto 12th standard studying in government schools has been exempted and it is estimated that a total of 5,89,000 girls would benefit from this free education scheme. To help girl students residing in remote areas, the establishment has operationalised 88 Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya and an equal number of girls hostels. To cover a wide range of disciplines a total of 13 scholarship schemes to support higher education of meritorious girls belonging to financially weak sections of society are now available in J&K.
The government is playing its part to improve literacy rate amongst women in J&K as well as empower them and give wings to their dreams. Now it’s the turn of parents and girls [both students and entrepreneurs] to ensure that they derive maximum benefit from these schemes. Everyone knows that when it comes to excelling in any sphere of activity, Kashmiri girls are second to none, and many of them have brought laurels for both the community and country.
Take example of Sabbah Haji, who has started Haji Public School in a remote village of J&K in order to provide quality education to children, or Nadiya Nighat who stormed into predominantly male football bastion by becoming Kashmir’s first female football coach.
Then, we have Tajamul Aslam who represented India in the ‘Under 8’ World Kickboxing Championship and made the country proud by winning a gold medal! Pursuing her dream, law graduate MehvishZarger co-founded the ‘Me ‘n’ U Café in Srinagar and became the first woman entrepreneur in the eatery business in Kashmir. RoohiNazki is another entrepreneur who founded ‘Chai Jaai’- a popular tea room in Srinagar. The list goes on.
The crying need of the hour is to ensure that unscrupulous elements don’t sabotage government initiatives concerning education and empowerment of women by converting these initiatives into an arena of conflict just to derive petty political gains or further separatist agenda. It needs to be understood that should this happen, then not only local girls but J&K too would be the ultimate loser. So, the import of the African proverb ibid needs to be religiously implemented-both in letter and spirit.

Email:------------nileshkunwar.56@gmail.com