What women want

In a city, where girls have to deal with problems inadequate resources and improper facilities, eve teasing, gender discrimination and societal pressure, it comes as a pleasant surprise that 80 percent of our college going girl students are confident of achieving their ambitions. This has been revealed in a study which was conducted by the FICCI Ladies Organisation (FLO) in association with Hanns Seidel Stiftung eV on the 'Aspirations of girl students in NCR of Delhi'.The survey was conducted on 2,000 undergraduate girl students at 32 institutions in the Capital out of which 74 percent of the interviewee were between the age group of 18 to 20 years. The study was recently released at a glittering ceremony in the Capital by Syeda Saiyidain Hameed, member, Planning Commission, Government of India. With 70 per cent of the respondents asserting that the course they are pursuing is entirely their choice, it came into light that majority of the girl students, almost 40 percent, still opt for arts courses. Those pursuing commerce include 22 per cent of the fraternity and merely 18 percent are in for sciences. Rest are pursuing softer subjects like home science and vocational courses offered by the polytechnics. Although 33 per cent of the students cited availability of subject and 21 per cent named reputation of the college, as the reason behind choosing a particular academic institution there is a sizable number of population, almost 12 per cent which opted for one for its vicinity. This may have to do with the fact that 34 per cent of the fairer sex lamented that commuting to and fro to the college was a major problem and a hindrance in their pursuit of education. Low quality, uninnovative education was cited as an obstacle in studies by one-fourth of the respondents. Although 23 per cent of the students displayed interest in joining a course having career opportunities after graduation and a large chunk of respondents, 78 per cent, said that they wanted to go for service on completion of their education, merely 42 percent of them were confident about continuing working after marriage. This is despite the fact, that nearly 70 per cent of the students surveyed have working mothers. In addition, though the girls may have come to an age in terms of choosing their education/ career, as far as marriage is concerned the decision remains with the parents. Almost 80 per cent of the girls have left the selection to their parents. The pushing of desirable age of marriage to 24-27 years by 50 per cent of the female students and between 27-30 years by 12 percent of them nevertheless, reflects the need to achieve a certain level of maturity and financial independence, prior to the marriage, amongst today's women, a majority of whom idolise super-cop Kiran Bedi, followed by Mother Teresa. With Delhi turning into a Capital of crime, it came as a no surprise that 57 per cent of the students do not feel safe in the city and 75 per cent of them complained of eve-teasing and almost 65 per cent named sexual harassment as major problem. Many felt that gender sensitisation is highly important to change the societal mindset and to enable them to scale unprecedented heights.