Halted, on her marks!

May 28th, 2010

If there is one feeling that plagues all Indian girls, it is ‘expectation’. Girls are expected to defy society, get a job, get married, raise a family and love their elders. And now, they are officially expected to get better grades than boys! The recent move of many pre-university colleges to raise the cut-off percentage for girls has left Bengalureans wondering why the unfair gender bias? A move like this is not just about the ‘admission’ process but raises larger questions of gender equality and the ills of the Indian education system.


“The admission process of getting into Indian universities is complicated enough without further need to twist it with illogical ‘rules’ like this,” opines Vishaka George, 18, student, “Reservations and already high cut-offs make it tough for students in the general category to get into a college; now we have this unfair discrimination.”

How can a generalisation that girls fare better than boys be made into an official rule, without any consistent statistical data to back it? “Girls work harder than boys and it shows in the results, yet we are the ones to suffer!” says student Apeksha Arun, 19, “Rules like this don’t help students get the best education; they help colleges gain popularity and increase their chances of having the ‘best of the best’,” she adds.

So are colleges trying to get elitist or is this a measure to get girls to give more than 100 percent, since they are the so-called smarter lot anyways? Says Sriranjan Thirumalai, an 18-year-old student, “This move will not encourage girls to study harder, it will just discourage them. The guys-girl ratio will increase in different streams and girls might be forced to study in colleges of low repute. Even as a boy, I agree that grades matter, not the gender,” he says.

In a country that is raising its voice against female infanticide and other social evils, the girl child continues to get the short end of the stick. Not only is this legally and morally wrong, but proves that urban women are at risk of discrimination as much as their rural counterparts. “How can the government expect a woman to be independent and self-sufficient if she is not given an equal chance to attain education?” asks Philomena Peris, ex-chairperson of Karnataka State Commission for Women, “Equality today is a fundamental right, yet shameless concepts like this are given a nod. It is no wonder we are facing brain drain.” she adds.

Looks like our brightest minds continue being a victim of the ‘Indian mindset’. Something is seriously going wrong and Gen Y want answers.