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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | 44 per cent college students: Women must accept violence - Chaitanya Mallapur

44 per cent college students: Women must accept violence - Chaitanya Mallapur

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published Published on Mar 8, 2015   modified Modified on Mar 8, 2015
-Indiaspend.org
 
A nationwide survey on youth attitudes reveals mindsets that haven't kept pace with the changing times on issues related to gender and society

India is a political democracy, but India's society is not democratic. That has been a hypothesis offered by many social scientists. Now there is empirical proof - from India's hope for the future, its school and college students.

* 65 per cent school children "don't know" that they are citizens of India
* 65 per cent of college students disapprove of boys and girls from different religions meeting in public places
* 44 per cent of college students "agree" that women have no choice but to accept a certain degree of violence
* 51 per cent college students believe women must mainly take care of the household and bring up children.


Regressive attitudes abound. A majority of college students favour military rule, almost half believe domestic workers do not have the right to a minimum wage, and more than a third of female college students and more than a fourth of male students believe giving and taking dowry is acceptable.

These are some of the key findings of one of the largest-ever nationwide surveys on youth attitudes, conducted by Children's Movement for Civic Awareness (CMCA), a Bengaluru-based non-government organisation that works to nurture democratic values among young Indians.

"One of the most disturbing finding of this survey has been the negative and undesirable attitude of young people towards gender and social issues," Manjunath Sadashiva, director, CMCA told IndiaSpend (indiaspend.org).

The only issue on which students do not appear to have regressive attitudes is the environment. More than 70 per cent believe it is important to collect rainwater and protect lakes.

Called Yuva Nagarika Meter (Youth Citizenship Meter), the study was conducted in association with the Indian Market Research Bureau (IMRB). The field research was spread across 11 states and covered 10,542 students: 6,168 students from 9th standard and 4,374 college students from first year undergraduate courses.

The study, one of the largest ever, revealed that youth in non-metro cities (Guwahati, Lucknow, Patna and Bhopal) appeared more progressive than metro cities (Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Ahmedabad).

A look at specific attitudes

The score for high school students with regards to rights and responsibility was only 27 per cent, while it was only a tad better at 31 per cent for college students.

Only 35 per cent of school students consider themselves citizens of India. Only 24 per cent of high-school students and 29 per cent of college students "correctly" understand the meaning of right against exploitation. The low score of 19 per cent among college students on democratic governance indicates the weakness in imparting civic knowledge and lack of exposure at higher level of education.

A very large number of college students support dictatorial or authoritarian form of government, which is represented by minus 11 per cent score on attitude towards democratic governance.

More than half (53 per cent) of college students favour military rule in India for "some years". Faith in democratic governance is fading. The reasons: corruption, scams, lack of policy implementation and poor governance. Once again, a low score of 15 per cent and 10 per cent highlights disdain students have for civic rules and laws. This is reflected in the widespread violation of laws by citizens and government officials by means of bribes, breaking traffic rules and not paying taxes.

Environmental conservation is the highest-scoring domain. This can be attributed to large-scale awareness programmes and campaigns on global warming and climate change in schools and colleges by NGOs. Academic inclusion of environmental science as a subject could be credited for positive attitudes.

Role reversal

More than half of college and school students (51 per cent) believe the main role of women is to take care of the household and to bring up their children. Giving and taking dowry is acceptable to 36 per cent girls and 44 per cent college-going boys. IndiaSpend had earlier reported that 22 married women die every day in the country due to dowry-related disputes. Among college students, 65 per cent do not want boys and girls belonging to different religions to meet in public places. IndiaSpend has reported on India's communal and caste divide: 72,126 riots were reported in 2013.

Among college and school students, 49 per cent agreed that household domestic workers do not have the right to demand minimum wages and other facilities.

If equality does not appear to be valued, that could be because democracy itself appears to be a fuzzy notion.

"Young people lack the understanding of the true meaning and value of democracy. What is most disturbing is the education system that we have today is not really equipping young people with critical thinking skills which are crucial for democracy," Sadashiva said. "They are being prepared to become economic or market actors rather than critical thinkers."

An important lesson that comes out from the study, according to Sadashiva, is that unless we transform the institutions we will not be able see the change.

"As a country, we are a political democracy but as a society we are not," said Sadashiva. "There is a huge gap. Therefore, one of the primary objectives of this research was to impress policy makers with the need to reform citizenship education."

Indiaspend.org is a data-driven, public-interest journalism non-profit


Business Standard, 7 March, 2015, http://www.business-standard.com/article/current-affairs/44-per-cent-college-students-women-must-accept-violence-115030700723_1.html


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