New Delhi (Sputnik) - In a novel attempt to elevate the image of women in society in the Indian state of Maharashtra, a new series of government school textbooks portray women as cops and doctors, and men doing household chores like cooking and cleaning. The move is being lauded by netizens for ending the "patriarchal mindset” in Indian textbooks.
The Maharashtra State Bureau of Textbook Production and Curriculum Research, also known as “Balbharati” seeks to reverse the gender roles in their new 2nd grade textbooks by including graphics and stories of men and women giving each other a hand in household chores. The book also shows women doing all sorts of outdoor jobs.
Some of the notable examples in the book are pictures of a man and woman cleaning vegetables together, a woman working as a traffic cop and a man cooking at home. The move is being hailed by many for gender-sensitising the new generation. Twitter users have called it as a move towards “smashing gender bias” in Indian society.
Indian textbooks for children had been criticised by female rights activists for allegedly reinforcing traditional gender roles. Many children grow up with textbooks where women toil away performing household chores and men are the proverbial breadwinners of the home.
Earlier, Balbharti had said the latest move is to make the children in Indian society more gender-liberal in their thinking and to make them realise that men and women are equal. "We here at Balbharati give emphasis on experiments. With revised textbooks, students from urban as well as rural areas will have a clear understanding that men and women are equal and capable of doing any work,” an official was quoted as saying by India Today.