The is the biggest myth we all have,that education will "transform" humans and make them broad minded.
I support education for all.Rather it's our birth right.But education is not THE ONLY WAY to curb evils in society.
A person's attitude,family's moral values,mental conditioning,and environmental influences on his personality ultimately decide whether he follows moral uprightness,or immoral paths.
There are so many examples you can see around yourself,where educated families illtreat the daughter/daughter inlaw,follow irrelevant customs and do many more things which an "educated" person isn't supposed to do.
A few examples:
1. Highly educated guys like IAS,IIT engineers,MBAs from IIM,CAs,Doctors,etc demand dowry worth lakhs.Has their education changed their attitude?
2. NRI families expect and give lavish marriages.Their daughters who may be P.HDs,fashion designers,etc & have been born and brought up abroad in liberal society never seem to oppose this financial pressure on their parents.
3. Since the British period,schools and colleges imparting western system of education that focusses on liberty,equality and democracy have mushroomed.This has been happening since 1800s.Yet the crime rate on women namely dowry demanding,pressure on their parents to arrange "decent" marriages,infanticide,etc just does not seem to go away.Rather it's increasing.
4. Just go to any good discotheque or pub in a metro like Delhi or Mumbai.It will include all the educated boys and girls,studied in the best schools,colleges,management institutes,etc.Ask an elderly or a mentally handicapped person to go and seek their help.aTlk to them humbly and see their manners.Many of them(not all) will misbehave or make fun.
Their education has not given them any refinedness.Most drunken driving is done by such people after a late night party.Then they fight and argue with police officers who have arrested them.They try to bribe.Has their education taught them any manners or morality?
Imagine a bride entering their home as a sister inlaw and facing harassment in their home.Do you think they will support her,now that they are EDUCATED?If yes,I am sure there are no DV cases being heard of in families where the brother inlaws,sister inlaws and mother inlaws are "EDUCATED"
See the world of media.All our heroines,heroes,directors,producers are well educated people.But you know what they engage in.Has education changed their mindset.
5. Have you watched AAP Ki Kachehri Programme on TV?If you ever noticed, the warring parties shown in that program were mainly from lower middle income group and lower income group families.Hardly there were cases involving rich and highly educated families.
Yet the aggrieved women who participated were very straighforward and assertive about their rights.They did not worry that the world is watching them.They only worried about getting their back rights and dignity.
One example:My widowed maid who had worked in my house many yrs. back also participated in that prog.She had brought her son and bahu as respondents.My maid is ILLITERATE;leave alone educated.Her son had cheated her.So she demanded her money back,which she managed to get also.Did she have any education that made her so confident to stand up for herself?
Not only this,my illiterate maid had also once filed a complaint against her husband in police thana when he was alive.He regularly physically abused her.After the complaint,the police would keep him in lock -up,then release him the next day.This went on many times.She never took his abuses lightly but always went to police whenever this happened.
Surprisingly,her husband transformed himself, turned into a good husband and they started having a good married life.This man was also illiterate.Yet he transformed!Did he learn to read and write before transforming?Did he get educated before transforming?Or did it have to do with his own conscience & personality?
sSimilarly,did the maid have any education with her that made her so confident enough to protest against the attrocities of her husband and son?
So,is the partriarchal mindset more of a moral problem,or is it more of an education related problem?
Even in highly educated families,partriarchal mindsets exist.Go thru this news,which is a glaring example of how rich and EDUCATED families in India's metros also commit female infanticide.
https://www.lawyersclubindia.com/forum/selective-abortion-prevented-birth-of-millions-of-girls-37534.asp
.Don’t forget you also see around yourself poor girls living in jhuggis.Why did their parents not kill them during birth?Were they partriarchy driven, or morally driven?
In our schools and colleges,we only study Maths,English,Hindi,Science etc.If we do a professional course like designing,then we study management,principles of designing,apparel merchandising and so on.These subjects only give you bit of technical and clerical skills.They can't transform you or change your thinking.
In the above case also,my maid was simply a self respecting lady,although she had no education.But she had some qualities like confidence and assertiveness which we cannot gain through education.
You cannot become self respecting,kind hearted and adjusting natured by studying English,Maths,Science,designing,biochemistry,physics and so on.
You develop these qualities due to your own upbringing,environmental influences on your psyche,your own attitude,your openness to adopt new but healthy ideas,your compassion level and your level of wordly wisdom.You only learn facts from books.You can't learn wisdom from books.
Once we understand this aspect,we will stop focussing on education as the only way to transform people.Education only gives information about facts.It cannot do anything beyond this.
