When I first heard about the바카라 웹사이트scrapping of the Maulana Azad National바카라 웹사이트Fellowship, one of India's바카라 웹사이트flagship educational programs for minorities that was made on the바카라 웹사이트recommendation of the Sachar committee,바카라 웹사이트I was shocked. I couldn't believe my senses and I remember wondering how the union minister for minority affairs바카라 웹사이트Smriti Irani decided to take such a drastic step. A woman herself, it was shocking to watch her remain aloof to the바카라 웹사이트needs of women across sectors like education and employment, especially marginalized and minority women. I say this since the latest move by the ministry to cancel the program will have a direct impact on바카라 웹사이트Muslim women's education and comes in the wake of already existing protests and mounting criticism against the hijab ban that many educational institutions now want to impose in parts of India.
When the Maulana Azad National Fellowship programme was discontinued, many young scholars who relied on to undertake research without enduring the financial strain of higher education were left devastated. For many women scholars, however, discontinuation of the program바카라 웹사이트can mean the바카라 웹사이트end of the road vis-a-vis education.
In a patriarchal setup, women's household labour and domestic chores seem to have no monetary value and often fail to confer her with any agency or respect. Only financial independence can provide women the agency to make their own decisions and live life on their own terms.바카라 웹사이트In his renowned piece "Development as Freedom," written under the heading "Women's Agency and Social Change," Nobel laureate Amartya Sen describes how women's "ill-being" might be transformed into "well-being" through financial independence. It's not rocket science, therefore, to correlate the need for education in women with their ability to build agency through gainful and paid employment.바카라 웹사이트
Degrees vs 'Gol Rotis'
We바카라 웹사이트cannot always guarantee social transformation in the form of a revolution. But education is a revolution too. Unfortunately, for a majority of women in India despite campaigns like 'Beti Bachao Beti Padhao', education is a difficult dream for many.
In families where women are only educated to the point required for them to find a good match for marriage, the challenges that girls face in accessing higher education or going to a central university are very real and multifaceted. For most, a professional future is a definite "no."바카라 웹사이트For a girl like me (and assuredly countless others), education has meant바카라 웹사이트dodging the pressure of marriage, taking refuge in a modest stipend to show myself as바카라 웹사이트independent, and luring바카라 웹사이트potential바카라 웹사이트in-laws to let me focus on my research rather than cooking바카라 웹사이트“gol rotis.”
The first obstacle a woman faces comes from inside her own family. Many parents won't invest in their daughters'바카라 웹사이트upskilling or education but will readily바카라 웹사이트take out loans for dowry. This is because in most families, a woman's future as a professional holds very little value. Instead, she is a seen as a career housewife, and dutiful daughter in law whose sole job is to make her in-laws happy.바카라 웹사이트
I had great expectations for MANF this year. Having recently바카라 웹사이트begun my바카라 웹사이트Ph.D. degree after two years of hard work, I wanted to demonstrate to my family and society that I am deserving of recognition, of being known as something바카라 웹사이트other than just a man's바카라 웹사이트"wife" or "daughter-in-law".
In a capitalist and profit-based society, everything needs to be judged on its monetary value. I too needed to convince my family that I am valuable.바카라 웹사이트A scholarship like MANF was an easy refuge to hide from my oppressive family.
Lack of financial independence, education or agency leads to the second biggest barrier that impacts women's development -바카라 웹사이트바카라 웹사이트decreased self-esteem. According to economist Naela Kabeer, one's self-perception and sense of value are the foundations of empowerment. This is closely tied to how they are seen by those around them and by their culture.
After a decade of struggling with low self-esteem and family pressure, it was a struggle for me to become motivated and adept enough to get into a local institution because my family's insecurity prevents me from leaving home to pursue my goals. My family gave me a tonne of filters, and I wanted to comb through all the filters my family had provided for me in order to make sure that my objectives were worthy of their acceptance. I was fortunate enough to be close to a major institution, but hard work comes before relaxation.
'Minorities within Minorities'
Indian society and its culture in general are full of insecurities regarding girls and a바카라 웹사이트majority of the middle class believe "over qualifying" women or giving them more education than needed for getting a good match,바카라 웹사이트might led to situations바카라 웹사이트 like "Ghar se Bhaag jaegi" (eloping with a lover) or "Pagdi mai phool rakh dena" (bringing바카라 웹사이트disgrace to family name). Girls like me live in a culture where one girl's elopement threatens the freedom of other girls her age, who must deal with the repercussions, and where attending school and college turns into the ultimate "bad guy". Yes, not every family behaves in that way, but I have personally experienced such events, and they are much too common.바카라 웹사이트
The dissolution of MANF has obscured the needs of Muslim women who are minorities within minorities, distorting their ambitions to a point of hopeless asphyxiation. Many girls from minority communities that have bigger aspirations than their parents or society allow them are now in a lurch.
The situation reminds me of John Rawls' "veil of ignorance,” just like our "Andha kanoon," which is바카라 웹사이트used to symbolise바카라 웹사이트a just society in whic the law and authorities바카라 웹사이트treat all subjects equally without discriminating on the basis of their바카라 웹사이트social status. Contrary to the Minority Affairs Minister's assertion that MANF바카라 웹사이트overlaps with other open-to-all programs, it is clear from this that the present administration is playing a game of hide-and-seek that is rife with exclusion and denial while wearing a "veil of ignorance".바카라 웹사이트
Even if a woman comes from a wealthy family, she may or may not have the financial independence (like in my case) or the바카라 웹사이트agency바카라 웹사이트to make her own decisions, there is a need for a minority affairs ministry that바카라 웹사이트would cater to the needs of such students and look at bottom-up approaches to level out바카라 웹사이트the potholes and바카라 웹사이트ensure a level playing field when it comes to educational access for minority communities.
India which asserts itself as a바카라 웹사이트socialist democratic nation in the Preamble and its constitution바카라 웹사이트prioritizes the inclusion of the underprivileged and excluded communities through affirmative action programs, of which MANF was one.바카라 웹사이트Discontinuing the MANF바카라 웹사이트goes against the principles of equality and justice enshrined바카라 웹사이트in the Constitution.
The willful ignorance of the educational needs of the community has been guised under "logical" excuses like not all members of a minority group belong under the ST, SC, or OBC classifications. Or that Muslim and Christian SCs are not recognized. Or that programs for women that are specially created for them only finance a single female daughter or a scientific fellow rather than students of social science. Incidentally, it's the바카라 웹사이트Ministry of Minority Affairs that administers MANF with UGC serving as the governing body. So바카라 웹사이트even when fellowships overlap, a student can only receive one grant at a time that has been duly approved by the supervisor.
Reform needed, not discontinuation
Every system needs to be reformed or reworked over time to fill any lacunae that may have crept in over the years of바카라 웹사이트implementation. However, instead of filling lacunae, the government has thoughtlessly바카라 웹사이트discarded the scheme in its entirety. In contrast to the NEP's proposed 50 percent Gross enrolment ratio in higher education, this decision will lessen the likelihood of upward social mobility for minority populations and make higher education inaccessible to disadvantaged students from those communities.
Ignoring the fact that MANF guarantees minority inclusion in higher education, which is not in and of itself a cakewalk but a question of merit, and expecting minority students to participate in general, will severely lower the number and marginalized scholars like us.
At 3.1% of GDP, education sector spending has essentially stagnated in recent years. It was just 2.8% in 2019–20, 3.1% in the revised projection for 2020–21, and 3.1% in the budgeted forecast for 2021–22, according to the Economic Survey for 2021–22. And since NEP 2020 calls for spending of 6 percent of GDP, it is possible that the government라이브 바카라 myopic attitude in eliminating MANF for scholars is an attempt to save money for a top priority that does not appear to include minorities and does not contribute to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals, one of which is to바카라 웹사이트promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development.
(Abida Khatoon is a PhD Scholar at the Centre for the Studies of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policies at Jamia Millia Islamia in Delhi. Views expressed in this article are personal)
