Study Of Gender Stereotypes in NCERT & SIERT Primary Text Books

Abstract

Gender stereotypes and biases could be found anywhere in the range from an advertisement of a product to academic books. The culture of India is still ruled by the desire of having a male child in the family even in the 21^st century; resultantly, male dominance is evident in all walks of life. The issue of marginalization of females in academics came into the limelight in the 1970s when the Ministry of Education and Social Welfare, Department published an eye-opening report ‘Towards Equality’ in 1974.

To identify the gender biases, discourse, and visual analysis of the school books is the best source and many feminists have done this kind of analysis to expose the gender-biased mentality of the people.  The main reason for taking gender biases seriously is the development of the same poor mentality of considering females weak in the new generations who are in the formative years of their life. It is now a paramount need of exploring the school texts and removing the controversial images and details to develop a fair mentality among the children.  In Blumberg (2007), the study of Firoz Bakhat Ahmed (2006) is quoted and reflected that though NCERT has given strict orders to remove such content from primary education unfortunately such material is persisting. If we get to know the pattern of the making of the books then it will be better to strike at the right place for improvement. The pattern of preparing the textbooks is as per the following details:

2 consultants, 4 authors, and 4 artists for the Ist standard

1 consultant, 6 authors, 1 layout artist, and 2 artists for the IInd Standard

1 chairperson, 1 reviewer, and 1 editor for the IIIrd standard 

9 authors for the IVth and Vth Standard

The above-given details show that a significant number of people are working for developing the books for the students but still the need of revising these books is required.