DPEP brings gender disparity down

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">BANGALORE: Even as the World Bank-funded prestigious District Primary Education Programme (DPEP) is being wound up in June 2003, gender disparities in enrolment and retention of girls has dropped from 5 per cent to 2 per cent in the 16 districts where the programme is operational.<br />However, districts like Raichur and Gulbarga have not kept up with the trend though there is a significant drop.In Raichur, gender disparity dropped from 10 per cent in 1997-98 to 5 per cent in 2002-02. In Gulbarga, it fell from 11 to 5 per cent.<br />Social equity has been the main focus of the DPEP programme which has built in gender and caste equity as its objectives. Self-reading and training modules have been created keeping in mind the educational needs of girls.<br />"Textbooks reinforced gender differences and disparities as it was never an issue when they were written. We found glorification of the virtues of the girl child to be submissive, shy, involved in household activities and in the kitchen while the boys dreamt of being pilots or something else. When the DPEP programme was implemented, we roped in a gender resource person in the development of the activity-cum-work books and teachers guides to ensure that discriminating messages do not get incorporated," State Project Director Vandita Sharma told <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">The Times of India.</span><br />Textbook committees also included two or three member sub-committees to include the gender component in writing textbooks. The teacher training modules had gender components and focussed in greater detail on the removal of discriminating messages inside the class room.<br />"To a large extent, textbooks in Karnataka are free of gender discriminating messages and DPEP should be credited for this," she explained.<br />The DPEP did not just focus on removing gender discriminations in textbooks. Kalajathas (cultural melas), which toured villages of DPEP districts, carried out equity messages. In fact, the famous Rangayana troupe was part of the kalajathas to create awareness.<br />The index for social equity (ISE), which indicates caste disparities, has also shown a marked improvement. Though the indices for 2002 are not available, the ISE for SC students in 2001 has shown a decline from 116 to 114.<br />The mid-day meal scheme has been one of the factors responsible for the decline in the ISE. "That all students eat food together has not only conveyed the message against discrimination among students but has also resulted in some attitudinal changes among teachers. Though we cannot boast of a total success in eliminating caste discriminations in schools, our focus is also to ensure that teachers do not display such attitudes in schools," Sharma said.<br />Also, the student enrolment has improved in Phase I districts (Belgaum, Kolar, Mandys, Raichur and Koppal) from 10.51 per cent in 1994-1995 to 11.95 per cent. The enrolment in Phase II districts (Bangalore Rural, Bellary, Bidar, Bijapur, Bagalkot, Dharwad, Gadag, Haveri, Gulbarga, Mysore and Chamarajanagar) has also improved from 21.37 per cent in 1997-1998 to 22.34 per cent in 2001-2002. </div> </div>