Bhaskar Parichha
In the age of Sec. 377, discussions on gender can be a tricky business. Yet, issues on sexual category warrant constant dialogue to understand the deep-rootedness of neglect and disregard of women .Odisha has been a grey area as far as gender studies are concerned. Not many comprehensive and acknowledged studies have been undertaken to discern the status of women in a patriarchal society like ours. Thankfully, many academic scholars have come forward to explore the area – more often than not as part of their doctoral programme.
The status of women in Odisha – whether social, economical or cultural – hasn’t undergone much transformation in the past several decades, despite successive governments coming up with myriad schemes to uplift them. This is truer of backward districts (KBK) where women continue to languish. If employment opportunities for women here have been elusive, traditionally they are seen as second- rate citizens. Fondness for the male baby, child mortality, waning sex ratio, social inequity all are glaring examples of present-day societal demeanor. Then, there are the usual suspects: illiteracy, lack of social infrastructure and disharmonious living.
‘Women Education in Odisha: A Study of Gender and Culture Variables’ by Dr Priyadarshini Mishra – Principal of Bhubaneswar-based Jayadev Institute of Social science Research – is a significant adding up of knowledge in the realm of gender education in Odisha.A regular contributor to national and international journals on education, femininity and human rights, she is currently working on the folklore of the Dongria Kondhs of Rayagada.
As the author says in the preface of the book, this study on gender injustice is from two angles: psycho-social and mythical or literary. Her contention is that once upon a time traditional Odia society cared much for values of education, although wide-spread illiteracy was prevalent at that point of time. In her view, in the protest literature of medieval Odisha and the oral traditions, one would find evidences of gender neutrality. Then she goes on to say that only in the past twenty years gender discrimination and atrocities on women in Odisha have increased and the range of discrimination too has scaled up – female feticide, mutilation of the girl child, witchcraft, insecurity of the female teacher working in remote areas, plight of adolescent tribal girls in government-run Ashram schools, exploitation of migrating brick kiln workers from Kalahandi and Bolangir (in outlying states of Andhra Pradesh) and so on.
She further asserts that ‘there is a severe lack of social protest against such exploitation on one hand and lack of sensitivity in the system to become conscious to the issues and adopt a long-term strategy in the direction to eliminate such injustices on the other.’ There can be no qualms on that statement.
Her visits to different parts of Odisha during the study, meeting the victims, interviewing the distressed all this has resulted in the present book which incidentally is her PhD thesis. She concludes by saying that, ‘a more inclusive, bottom-up approach to the development discourse and policy needs to account for women’s multiple cultural identities and rationalities while exploring avenues for greater equity’.
While the book, for the major part, has dealt with socio-psychological-anthropological theories and references (Mahatma Gandhi,Sherry Ortner,Robert Connell,Martha Nussabaum,Sudhir Kakkar and Amartya Sen),the literary and cultural component is a tad closer domicile. Her exploration of the locally rich cultural aspects and literary texts make the study a little more exciting. Forexample, she has tried to draw the identity of women from Odisha’s traditional literature – particularly poet Balaram Das’s ‘Laksmi Purana’ (prose rendition by Dr Jagannath Prasad Das).This along with the saint-poet Bhima Bhoi’s ‘Stuti Chintamani’ are assumed to be prime examples of earliest feminist texts in Odia.
While the author’s predilection for the social and cultural sensibilities of Western Odisha in the book is too obvious to point out, this study is nevertheless pan-Odisha. With all the figures and numerous supplementary materials, the dissertation in over 150 pages is a welcome addition to the literature on gender studies. Writing a doctoral thesis—the culmination of years of research work—can be a daunting endeavor and this work is no different.
Women Education in Odisha
By Priyadarshini Mishra
Adhyayan Publishers & Distributors
4378/4B, JMD House,Murari Lal Street,Daryaganj,
New Delhi – 110002
2018
Rs 650
