Society & business project

report Submitted By
GROUP
Abhishek | Mayank | Meghana | Sohail |
Soundarya | Urjeeta
 Indian Education System-
Background
Education has a crucial role to play in economic development of a country as it directly translates to the
creativity, efficiency and productivity of the people of a country, thus promoting nation building. Since its
Independence, India has focussed on improving its literacy rate and promote education. But for quite some
decades now, the Indian education system is struggling due its several flaws and we have been falling
behind many other countries, especially the developed ones, in the field of education. In 2014, India’s global
education ranking slipped to 93.
Before the introduction of the National Education Policy 2020, the last Education Policy introduced in India
was in the year 1986, that, by now, has become a very outdated model.
Though NEP 2020 addresses many of the issues faced by the Indian education system and proposes some
ground breaking changes it does little to overcome the widespread problem of discrimination prevalent
across schools, colleges and universities in India.
 Problems Plaguing India’s Education
System
Poor Infrastructure
Lacks a proper infrastructure necessary to
match the facilities provided on an
international scale. Until recently, the
education system lacked in matters of usage
of technology
Discrimination in Education
Although discrimination at educational institutions is
technically illegal, for all intents and purposes such
mistreatment remains commonplace in India. The
children from Dalit, tribal and Muslim communities, who
face subtle or glaring discrimination, feel humiliated and
hurt, and eventually they no longer want to attend
 Rote Learning
Lack of critical and analytical thinking. Learning for
learning is a staple in the India education system
Shortage of Teachers
Data provided by UNESCO in 2016 indicated
that the Global Ratio of Students per Teacher
was 23.65 whereas it stood at 35.22 for India
Flawed Evaluation System
Marks remain the primary criteria to evaluate
student performance. This places undue
pressure on students and encourages rote
learning
Lack of a Uniform database
Educational planning and monitoring are made much
more difficult because of the lack of comprehensive
and accurate data on schools, school-age children and
actual attendance of both students and teachers
Lack of proper schooling in Rural areas
There continues to be a gap between the facilities
provided in urban schools with respect to those
provided in rural schools. This exists due to lack of
incentive for private institutes to set up in rural areas
Unequal preference to all subjects
Science related streams are valued over others
such as arts, language, commerce and sports.
They are generally not considered to be essential
subjects
 Teacher Training
Teachers form the most vital part of the education
system and need proper training to ensure that the
Students are provided with a conducive learning
environment and proper support for their coursework
 Discrimination in Education
Discrimination in education is the act of discriminating against people belonging to certain categories in enjoying
full right to education. It is considered a violation of human rights.
The Convention against Discrimination in Education adopted by UNESCO on 14 December 1960 aims to combat
discrimination and racial segregation in education. As at December 2020, 106 states were members of the
Convention.
Why are some students treated unfairly at school, college or a university?

•Ethnicity •Race
•Disability •Pregnancy or Maternity
•Nationality •Economic Condition
•Age •Religion or Belief
•Gender •Sex
•Gender Reassignment •Sexual Orientation
 5

BIAS IN CURRICULA
Bias in School Textbooks Religious Bias
The content of school textbooks is often
Many countries and states have
the issue of debate, as their target
guidelines against bias in
audience is young people, and the term
education, but they are not
"whitewashing" is the one commonly used
always implemented.
to refer to selective removal of critical or
damaging evidence or comment.

Gender Bias
According to fourth edition of annual Global Education Monitoring
Report of UNESCO, 2020, depiction of female characters are less
frequent and often discriminatory in school text books of many
countries. As per UNESCO report pervasive sexist attitudes in school
textbooks are invisible obstacles in educating girls, undermine their life
expectations, careers, and gender equality.
 Example of Religious Curricula Bias
in India
• In 1982 the NCERT issued guidelines for the rewriting of schoolbooks. It stipulated that: “Characterization of the
medieval period as a time of conflict between Hindus and Muslims is forbidden”. In April 1989 the West
Bengal Board of Secondary Education had issued instructions to schools and publishers of textbooks that "Muslim
rule should never attract any criticism. Destruction of temples by Muslim rulers and invaders should not be
mentioned”. Schools and publishers were asked to ignore and delete mention of forcible conversions to Islam.
Some academicians have felt that these "corrections" were politically motivated and that they are censorship.

• Arun Shourie criticized these changes in schoolbooks and claimed:  “ The most extensive deletions are ordered in
regard to the chapter on "Aurangzeb's policy on religion". Every allusion to what he actually did to the Hindus, to
their temples, to the very leitmotif of his rule – to spread the sway of Islam – are directed to be excised from the
book. ... "In a word, no forcible conversions, no massacres, no destruction of temples. ... Muslim historians of
those times are in raptures at the heap of Kafirs [sic] who have been dispatched to hell. Muslim historians are
forever lavishing praise on the ruler for the temples he has destroyed, ... Law books like The Hedaya prescribe
exactly the options to which these little textbooks alluded. All whitewashed away. Objective whitewash for
objective history. And today if anyone seeks to restore truth to these textbooks, the shout, “Communal rewriting
of history.””
 Gender Bias in STEM
Education in India
According to All India Higher Education Survey (AIHES) 2017-18, 49 percent of females were registered in B.Sc
course whereas only 29 percent for B.Tech. The disparity in gender becomes more striking by observing the
percentage of students opting for Ph.D. after their post-graduation. After postgraduation, only 6 percent of
women in Engineering and Technology areas are opting for Ph.D. This estimate is as low as 3 percent in the science
stream.

When compared to the number of female Ph.D. holders, the number of females as faculty in academic as well as
research institutes is substantially low. According to National Task Force for Women in Science, the global mean
fraction of women in research and development is 30 percent whereas in India only 15 percent of the research and
development workforce are women. In the fields of physics and computer science, this inequality is observed the
most.

Females are not only underrepresented and underpaid but also are usually unrecognized for their achievements in
science. "Out of 744 Indian National Science Academy Fellowships, only 3.2 percent were women awardees",
stated a 2017 report. This report demonstrated that the selection committees for awards are male-centric and the
appointments to R&D areas in government-funded associations, often go against women scientists.
Exploring the reasons for Gender 8

Bias in STEM
• Male Privilege in Industry: Patriarchal attitudes exists in hiring practices or granting fellowships etc. The daily lives of females
working in the industry are laden with innumerable issues related to sexist comments on their behavior and clothing. A male-
dominated work condition and gender insensitivity are added troubles for female scientists. Researches have shown that an
immense gender gap in STEM fields to the deep-rooted masculine and sexist culture.
• Wage Gap: Another significant reason is the wage gap. Females in STEM report much higher rates of being paid less than their
male equivalents for doing the same job. There is also a higher attrition rate of females in the industry.
• Societal Mindset: There is a common mindset that boys are better at science than girls. Therefore, we can observe that of the 11
percent of colleges in India that are solely for females, the majority offer arts and commerce rather than major in science.
• Societal Pressure: Females are looked upon to take both the burden of home and work. If they take a break from their career due
to family reasons, it becomes challenging for females to resume their careers in science.
• Baby Penalty: After the birth of the first child, approximately half (43%) of mothers and 23% of fathers left STEM employment,
transitioning into either part-time work or shifting to non-STEM fields or even leaving the workforce entirely. This clearly states
that the childcare responsibility drives more females than men out of STEM jobs, in India where the weight disproportionately
befalls women, it is apparent the outcome will be pronounced.
• Few role models: Many times role models are one of the factors in deciding career choices. There are fewer female role models in
the fields of science, engineering, or math for young female students to pursue. Furthermore, our books too seldom talk about
these role models.
 Areas that require necessary women
participation
Achieving SDG Problems with AI Displacement due to technology

To realize the UN Sustainable
Development Goals and the Paris
Agreement, people working in
STEM will also be assigned to
invent and produce numerous
solutions. Therefore, women and
girls must be given equal
opportunities to shape our
present and future societies.
Artificial intelligence(AI) will have an Over the world as well as India, the
intense influence on our societies over demand for a technologically
the next decade. The issue is that AI qualified workforce is on the
has been dominated by males. increase. The under-representation
Algorithms written by males of females in STEM sets females as a
frequently end up skewed to prefer whole group at a huge risk of being
men because of unconscious biases displaced due to technology.
and the prospects brought into the
development process by coders. To
devise a society that can meet the
requirements of all citizens, equal
representation in STEM is necessary.
 Caste-Based Discrimination
• Seating Arrangement in Classrooms: The discrimination starts from the moment children step into the classes. Those from the Dalit
communities are made to sit in the last benches while those from the upper castes are given first bench seats.  The other students often
get into fights and beat up the Dalit students if they sit in the front rows.

• Midday meal scheme: The governmental scheme to start free mid-day meals to improve nutritional standards for all children affects
Dalit children in another way where they are stigmatised more by being made to sit separately. Some schools report the usage of
different plates for Dalit children and special requests by the upper caste parents to not let them sit together or use the same plates.

• Sexual and Mental Abuse: In a report by the International Dalit Solidarity Network (IDSN), there are 14 cases of violence in schools
reported and 12 of them are about sexual abuse of children from the marginalised communities. Bullying is another form of harassment
which is widespread and underreported. Dalit students are subject to repeated bullying by peers of higher castes.

• Stereotypes and Teacher perceptions: Very often, in studies and interviews teachers report that lower caste children are dull and not
intelligent. However, this goes against the reality where most Dalit students are above average. The teachers brush this off as saying
they are only a few exceptions.
 11

Religious Minorities
The educational status of Muslims is lowest among all socio-religious communities (except scheduled castes
and scheduled tribes) in India. Muslim kids are victims of some of the worst cases of discrimination

In Bhilla village in U.P,  NewsClick Report states that

“In what comes as another instance of discrimination along the religious lines, a video of Muslim students being
served mid-day meals on partial [leaf plates] while other students are using plates.”

The news headlines are filled with such incidents. Another painful headline, this one in thePrint:
Muslim school kids called names and told to “go to Pakistan”, mothers blame TV hate.
ThePrint cited Nazia Erum, author of the book Mothering a Muslim, as saying “in the last few years, religious
discrimination in schools had gone up drastically”.
 Religious
Minorities
A report released by rights body, Human Rights Watch, on 14 Mar 2014, “‘They Say We’re Dirty’: Denying
an Education to India’s Marginalised,” highlights religious and caste-based discrimination in India’s
schools.
The report based on interviews with students and teachers in four states – Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra
Pradesh and Bihar – reveals discrimination such as segregation in classrooms, corporal punishment, food
deprivation, cleaning toilets, derogatory remarks, and denying leadership positions.
“The teacher tells us to sit on the other side. If we sit with others, she scolds us and asks us to sit
separately,” said Pankaj, eight, of the Ghasiya tribe from Uttar Pradesh state’s Sonbhadra district, who is
cited in the report.
“The children from the other community don’t play with us or talk to us. The teacher doesn’t sit with us
because she says we are dirty. The other children also call us dirty every day, so sometimes we get angry
and hit them,” he said.
 Examples of discrimination faced by
religious minorities
• Students of religious minorities are forced to eat at separate tables
• Some educational institutions have unfairly banned wearing certain religious items
• In some schools it has been observed that since the cooks are from SC background, upper caste Hindu
children go home to have meals because their meals are prepared by an SC
• Children experience discrimination from their teachers and they are more likely to have negative attitudes
about school and lower academic motivation and performance
• A school in Bihar was found to discriminate its students based on religion and caste. It was found to be
segregating students into different sections and rooms based on their religions and caste. The attendance
register for students is also separate as per religion and caste
 Issues Faced by Differently Abled
•Inaccessibility: The absence of accessible infrastructure is the major challenge among physically disabled students
to pursue higher education. Classrooms, libraries, labs, washrooms, canteens, and even sports and games areas
lack accessible infrastructure. Lack of physical and social access for disabled young people to higher education is a
major barrier to creating a pool of appropriately qualified students to enter higher education on an equal basis.

"One of the big problems that we have here as students is that we need to study but the library has
no access to books ...because the library has upstairs that we have to climb. These restrict people
with disabilities to access some books. Some students fail to attend lectures because lecture rooms
are located upstairs and some disabled students fail to climb so as to attend their lectures."

•Lack of Awareness: It is not always apparent to disabled students as to who are the people liable for analyzing
their needs. It is also not clear what facilities and rights are available to them. This involved the legal notion of
reasonable accommodation. In that way, the physically disabled students not only experience stress and
anxiety, but they also have difficulty in preparing themselves for higher education study.
 Factors affecting Differently Abled
Out of 12 million differently-abled children, only 1% of students attend school whereas when it comes to
employment, around 63.66% of differently-abled people are unemployed as compared to the 60.21%
employment rate in both rural and urban areas of India.
• Ugly forms of Discrimination: Because of the stigma attached to disabilities, their families become victims
of discrimination and human rights abuse. Children who are differently-abled are kept hidden away at
their homes and are denied basic human rights. They are seen as dependent persons which limits the
possibilities of differently-ables for their complete participation in economic as well as social life.
• Dismissal of disability: The family members are sometimes unwilling to accept the disability or relate it to
a physical illness. They hide the fact of having a challenged family member at home because of the stigma
associated with such disabilities. This leads to restrictive behaviors in them.
 Factors affecting Differently 16

Abled
• Subjugation of physical restraints: People with disabilities are subjected to various harmful treatments
due to the superstitions present in the communities. The black magicians physically hurt people and even
suppress them to food restrictions. Children having intellectual disability having behavioral issues are
often locked or even chained by their families.
• Denial of right to property: According to the law of India, everyone in the family is qualified to get their
portion of inherited property, but in real life, disabled people are not given these rights. Their siblings
take accountability for giving care and they would use the property meant for the disabled one.
• Inconsistencies in state program: The ministry of social justice and empowerment purviews concerns
related to children with disabilities. Some of their concerns like prevention and remedial perspectives are
dealt with by the ministry of health. However, no single ministry has taken the liability of adhering to the
holistic requirements of CWDs. Disability still falls in the domain of “social welfare”. Since disability falls
under state subject, each state has its plans for disabled people, but none of them can understand the
holistic needs of people with disabilities.
 ARTS, CREATIVE SCIENCES AND 17

SOCIAL SCIENCES – FOR THE

COMMON GOOD
Humanities and Arts are central to all human cultures throughout time.
Their study can facilitate deeper intercultural understanding and lay the groundwork for a civically
engaged life.
They can also prepare the students to think critically, act creatively, and succeed in a rapidly changing
world.
They broaden our perspective of life and society and hence help us deal with everyday problems and bring
us closer to one another.
They bring people together and help to improve the quality and appreciation of life. 
 NEED OF THE HOUR - ARTS &
SOCIAL SCIENCES
We are living in uncertain and ever-changing times. A place where there is a growth in nationalism, a spike in hate crimes,
revelations exposing predators and sexual assaults pursued by the powerful. It has almost come to the point where one
looks at a headline and is unsurprised if it is displeasing, and scary. There seems to be a tension that is constant. There has
been an extreme rise of misunderstanding between people who have certain differences that cannot be rectified for
some reason or another that, arguably, could be resolved if a greater focus on humanities and the arts were set in place.
It can be said that in these times, the thing we all need most is to abolish ignorance and increase empathy and
understanding of others- the understanding of different cultures, languages and acknowledgement that other things
exist outside of one’s own place of living. The humanities, in brief, is a field of study around human society and culture.
The arts, in brief, refers to the expression of creativity found in the societies of humans and culture. Humanities subjects
would be, for example: History, Religion, Philosophy and Languages, etc. Whereas the arts would consist of subjects that
involve creative expression: Literature, Theatre, Painting and Music, etc. Things that are made to make us feel alive,
things that were made to give us an outlet to express our happiness or grievances toward the world we exist in.
Moreover, things that make us understand or, for a moment, listen to the problems that we ourselves have. – Aman
Kashyap, Business Analyst at The New Indian Express
 Do managers benefit from
arts, creative expressions and social sciences?
A recent study on the ’Overview of MBA Programs In India from a Global Perspective’ conducted a comparative analysis between top 20
Indian B-schools and top 20 B-schools worldwide via data gathered in terms of pedagogy, specializations, accreditation, fees,
scholarships and student characteristics. The study revealed that while Indian B-schools were still lagging in the amount of diversity in
specializations offered, they were coming to terms with the global standards with an increasing number of B-schools incorporating liberal
studies into the curriculum each year. Management nowadays is a highly competitive discipline that requires students to develop several
core competencies and a distinctive sense of social responsibility, while also building a holistic vision in mind through versatility,
equanimity, inspirational leadership and problem-solving skills.

As the corporate world progresses both vertically and horizontally with new, intricate roles and requirements building in each
organization, managers are expected to have a much higher emotional quotient as well as relevance with respect to current issues of the
world. A well-rounded individual with artistic pursuits, well-informed opinions on matters of socio-economic relevance and the ability to
have a holistic standpoint while handling sensitive issues in the workplace is expected to be a much better manager than one that lacks
these skills despite their organizational and multitasking skills more than making up for the same.
 Stress and how it affects MBA 20

students
Stress can be caused by various external factors. A study on the
Impact of Academic Stress Among the Management Students of Amet University – an Analysis showed that around
50% of students believed that stress was caused due to societal factors and in addition to monetary and family
pressure, the most significant environmental factors included peers treating freshers unlike each other, faculty treating
different peer groups differently and the need to mingle with peers of different race/ethnicity on campus.

Yet, MBA students’ high stress levels are often justified as a testament to their toughness, an important quality
required for them to take difficult decisions in their professional journeys as future MBAs. As a part of their routine,
juggling academics, exams, committees, placements and case competitions, MBA students rarely get to dedicate
regular time to stress relieving activities like healthy workouts, hobbies or therapy as suggested in the aforementioned
study as well. Thus, they have a vulnerability to unhealthy coping mechanisms like addiction to energy drinks, devices,
alcohol or drugs as analyzed in several research articles and papers.
 4 Reasons why managers should study the
arts, creative expressions and social sciences
Though fine & liberals arts seem worlds away from the corporate environment, managers who are business savvy and
have an appreciation for arts have a valuable combination of skills, talent and insight. A study in arts doesn't mean a
person is unfit for being a leader in the corporate world as the penchant for arts has multiple other benefits as well.

Creative & Innovative

The general assumption is that creative people pursue arts. But research proves the other way around. Practising the
arts helps individuals become more creative and innovative. These are highly demanded skills in the business world,
and many corporates are turning into art classes for assisting the employees in tapping into their inner artist. In Japan,
the project managers and the executives are sent for finger painting courses to spark their imagination and think
outside the box. Practising fine and liberal arts strengthens the communication and connections between both sides of
the brain & maximizes the creative potential.
 Knowledge & Insights

Though there has been a lot of academic emphasis on the hard sciences and technology as they are in high demand in the
business and manufacturing sectors and provide the necessary skills to research and develop the products and solutions of
the future, they can lack the insight and analytical skills honed by a fine or liberal arts background. Individuals of literature,
art, history and anthropology background often possess valuable insights into how people think or the underlying patterns
in human behaviour, which are essential for a manager. Modern businesses must combine the skills of both scientists and
artists to remain competitive, innovative, and forward-thinking.

Express & Impress

Employers generally look for employees who can see connections and read between the lines or turn a problem around and
consider it from a different angle. At the same time, they search for candidates with excellent communication skills. Liberal
arts studies enable students to perfect their written and spoken communication, and courses like history, literature,
anthropology, and sociology often require extensive research training. These skills make liberal arts students a valuable
resource for the business world, where leadership, confidence, and vision are not always synonymous with eloquence,
discernment, and foresight.
 Relax & Unwind

Even if the liberal arts training is not applied to a business career, it can still be a part of regular life due to
multiple good reasons. Creative activities can help us feel about ourselves and can make us healthier both
physically and mentally. In the business world, stressful, hectic, and unrelenting, arts can help relieve stress.
Creative activities help people to relax and unwind. Even if you spend an hour writing a novel you'll never
publish, running through etudes on the violin or painting pottery – if you're doing something creative, you'll
be improving your quality of life.

Thus, humanities and management are not competitive; they are, in fact, complementary. There is a need to
blend the humanities and business education as one without the other is incomplete. Management courses
enable an individual to make a living, while liberal studies enable to build a life.
 Weighing the importance of
Management and humanities
Management education can never be trumped by humanities as humanities will never take precedence over an
MBA. One cannot replace the other. Bala V. Balachandran, founder and dean, Great Lakes Institute of Management,
Chennai says "An MBA is considered the superstructure; humanities or any other discipline is the base”

A postgraduate management education is not just about numbers, quantitative or technical competence; but
also, about leadership, innovation, entrepreneurial ability and energy. A humanities degree must be combined with
management education as an MBA is more than technical know-how, it completes a person’s education. Saibal
Chattopadhyay, Director, Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta says "Humanities must be combined with
management education for holistic learning"
 25

There is a need for education in citizenship for the functioning of democracy in India.
Universities which focuses on humanities and social sciences contribute towards citizenship
development. The optimal way to cultivate citizenship is through broad-based education in the humanities
and social sciences. Management courses will not take a back seat if humanities and social sciences start
gaining currency. There are good and bad Universities — the bad ones would be driven out of the market as
we don’t need bad universities offering management and technology education. Andre Beteille, Sociologist,
Writer and Chancellor, Ashoka University says

"Management courses will not take a back seat if humanities education starts gaining currency"

The new MBA way of life
Social or Community Work
Giving to the world can often put things into
perspective and alleviate the internal factors
causing stress in an MBA students’ lives.
Often, a look at the bigger picture through
immersive social or community work, smooths
over trifles with a change in outlook.
Physical Training
Aided/Compulsory Physical Training could
help boost the physical and in turn mental
health of MBA students campus-wide.
Additional dietary or gym resources would
only help supplement the cause.
26
Liberal Studies in the Curriculum
A structured approach to liberal studies
within the day-to-day schedule of a hectic
MBA student’s life can help divert from more
than a few stress causing factors by
engaging and enabling the average student
within the classroom.
Extracurricular Training
Trained professionals coaching music, art,
literature and other subjects as elective subjects
chosen in addition to the core subjects could
promote a more holistic approach at stress
relief and character development.
 WHAT SHOULD THE
ADMINISTRATION DO?
SCHOOL
• Develop clear indicators to detect and address discrimination in schools.
• Lay out appropriate disciplinary measures.
• Create a system to track every child from enrollment through completion of grade X.
• Teacher Sensitization Programs.
• Train teachers to develop methods for greater interaction among children of varied socio-economic and
caste backgrounds.
• Parent-Teacher meetings to propagate knowledge and start a conversation on socio-economic matters in
school and align the same at home.

COLLEGES
• Phase-wise Increased diversity with Social Sensitization workshops .
• Student bodies for monitoring of student activities and maintenance of harmony.
• On-campus counselors to address social issues of students including discrimination or harassment with
ability to expedite matters of serious concern.
• Group shuffling or Regional exchange programs to promote more exposure to diverse students while co-
operating in academic platforms.
 What should the Administration
do?
In order to prepare a new age Manager with his right brain’s creative intuition as active as his left brain’s
analytical skills, a structured approach would be required:

• While some may argue that there is little utility to devoting classroom time to these disciplines instead of
more Management-specific courses, a well-balanced schedule could be curated with either a 70:30 or
60:40 weightage of total classroom time allotted to core Management courses and liberal studies
respectively.

• An immersive liberal arts program entirely could help open up new avenues for management in fields of
creativity like the entertainment sector, thus diversifying both the students as well as faculty and
placement opportunities.
 What should the Administration
do?
• While devoting classroom time in a compulsory elective or course could ensure full participation, the
lack of choice could hamper the quality of learnings expounded by the course. Thus, a choice-based
elective could be more beneficial to both the administration as well as the students in case of liberal
studies subjects.

• Adjunct faculties’ opportunities, Timely workshops, interviews or ‘QnA’ sessions with leading liberal
studies managers like filmmakers, artists, talent management reps, journalists, content editors and so
on would help build the foundation for a diverse culture of management in liberal studies.

• Research oriented learning inculcated with the help of training or guidance for generating a cross-
disciplinary research paper would help gain an in-depth understanding of the various diverse disciplines
including liberal studies and its impact on the overall productivity of an MBA student.
 REIMAGINING THE
EDUCATION SYSTEM - Bringing
Indian Diversity and Inclusive
Ideologies
•People often carry biases upperception
that set the tone for their to dateof what is right and wrong. For too long
have we tried to ignore a major facet of our life thinking it to be private and not to be discussed in public
when in fact this needs to be nurtured on a grassroots level.
•It’s time to learn the logic and reasoning behind human observations and their significance. For eg. - 
Religious education needs to be taught in concurrence with history as religion has played a important
role in shaping our history. 
•Delivering Facts not Opinions should be the primary focus when it comes to doling out of historical
events and occurrences.
•Students should be encouraged to critically evaluate and analyse facts presented to them in order to
create their own facts-based information rather than baseless perceptions.
•Creation of Coeds starting from entry level schooling with mandatory “Coed Tasks” to familiarise and
sensitise gender perspectives from a younger age.
 31

Analysing Solutions
Coed System Diversity
Role of Coed system in gender equality Normalizing diverse synergies among Educational
settings

Gender Sensitization New Courses

Referencing mythology for gender sensitization Introduction of relevant courses in the curriculum

Research Based Solutions Digital Pedagogy

Leveraging science to bring relevant changes Digital tools and platforms can democratize the
educational experience

Encourage Factual thinking Differently Abled

To break the chain of generational prejudice building, Support and training should be available to enable
schools need to encourage factual thinking families with specially abled children
 EDUCATION BEGINS AT
HOME
Undoubtedly, a child's education starts at home. Parents are the first teachers of the child; they also mold the child's character. A good
balance of education at school and home facilitates better learning
Children observe how their parents respond to the society and later relate to the world by themselves. Creating a healthy environment
at home for a child’s learning, education and character building is the responsibility of the family. Parents need to create a good base
by inculcating good values and habits in children so that they become responsible, sensitive and empathetic individuals. Parents also
need to be very conscious of the language they use, the behavior they depict and their own inherent biases before teaching children.

LEARNING AT HOME
Values – Children are like sponges, they soak up everything around them. To instill values in them, a family has to be a good role model
for them. Respect, compassion, empathy, fairness and responsibility should be taught from a young age.

Skills – Motor Skills, Language Skills and Emotional Skills (having sympathy and compassion, understanding others’ emotions, dealing
with highs and lows in life) are skills which a family can play an important role in developing

Socialization – Interaction with family members, friends and relatives help instill confidence in children and shapes their personality.
Interpersonal communication makes children responsive, warm and open.
 TEACHER TRAINING
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR TEACHERS

1. Recognize your implicit biases and remediate your racial illiteracy

2. Be aware that stereotype threat may be occurring among some minority students
3. Meaningfully integrate diverse cultures and peoples into the curriculum
4. Responsibly address racial tensions when they arise
5. Recognize that you and your faculty colleagues share much responsibility for racial
inequities

In addition to developing discriminatorial literacy from publications, attending conferences

and workshops are also critically important for teachers and professors while creating safer,
more inclusive classroom environments for diverse learners
 synergies among
Educational settings -
•
Coeds
We are not born biased but we learn it very early. A study “Three‐month‐old's, but not newborns, prefer
own‐race faces” suggests that preferential selectivity based on ethnic differences is not present in the first
days of life, but is learned within the first 3 months of life. The findings imply that adults' perceptions of ethnic
differences are learned and derived from differences in exposure to own- versus other-race faces during early
development.

•Having people with as diverse backgrounds as possible interact with each other in a class setting, will
definitely get rid of preconceived notions.

•As Amy Stuart Wells, Lauren Fox, and Diana Cordova-Cobo of Teachers College Columbia vividly demonstrate
in this important new report, “the benefits of school diversity run in all directions.” There is increasing
evidence that “diversity makes us smarter,” a finding that selective colleges long ago embraced and
increasing numbers of young parents are coming to appreciate at the K–12 level. The authors write:
“researchers have documented that students’ exposure to other students who are different from themselves
and the novel ideas and challenges that such exposure brings leads to improved cognitive skills, including
critical thinking and problem solving.”
 Referencing mythology for
Gender Sensitisation
There are various instances of mythic texts referencing LGBTQ community. 
•Legend from the Linga Purana says that the embracing of love-struck Shiva and Mohini led to their merging
into one body. At this moment, Mohini became Vishnu again, resulting the composite deity Harihara, whose
right side of the body is Shiva and left side is Vishnu in his male form.

•Arjuna himself is an example of gender variance. When Arjuna refused her amorous advances, the nymph
Urvashi  cursed Arjuna; he would become a "kliba," a member of the third gender. 

•Samba, the son of Krishna, is a patron of eunuchs, transgender people and homoeroticism. Samba dresses
in women's clothes to mock and trick people, and so that he can more easily enter the company of women
and seduce them.

•In Vedic literature, Mitra and Varuna are portrayed as icons of affection and intimate friendship between
males (the Sanskrit word Mitra means “friend” or “companion”). Ancient Brahmana texts furthermore
associate Mitra and Varuna with the two lunar phases and same-sex relations: “Mitra and Varuna, on the
other hand, are the two half-moons: the waxing one is Varuna and the waning one is Mitra.
 Encouraging Research based
solutions
•One cannot expect reform efforts in education to have significant effects without research-based knowledge to guide them.
Scientific research in education can shed light on the increasingly complex and performance of Improving the Indian Education
Sector.

•For one thing, policymakers and scholars across the political spectrum are beginning to realize that ignoring the social science
research on the negative effects of concentrated school poverty is not working to close large achievement gaps between races
and economic groups - The Century Foundation

•A wide variety of legitimate scientific designs are available for education research. They range from randomized experiments of
voucher programs to in-depth ethnographic case studies of teachers to neurocognitive investigations of number learning using
positive emission tomography brain imaging. 

•To develop such a scientific culture, the responsible agency must have an infrastructure that is insulated from political
micromanagement, supported by sufficient and sustained resources, and led by staff with top scientific and management
credentials who have the flexibility to make decisions and are accountable for them.
 Amendments to the 37

curriculum
•Changes in the education system can also be induced through altering the curriculum of students

•Students can be encouraged to  volunteer for immersion programmes that expose them to the various facets of life
and culture. They can be encouraged to mingle and interact with diverse segments of the society in order to
understand and appreciate their unique perspectives.

•These students would be evaluated on the basis of their learnings and perspectives gained throughout the
programme.

•Another way to encourage students for developing an appreciation towards diverse cultures would be to introduce
exchange programmes in school curriculum. Rather than focusing on Foreign exchanges, students would be
encouraged to opt for schools which cater to students from a background that is unique to the student opting for
the exchange.

•A peer to peer evaluation system could be introduced for this form of curriculum as it would also help evaluators
gain an insight into the takeaways that the students took from the program.
 Encourage Factual Thinking
The primary reason behind STEM and Management Institutes still facing instances of discrimination and segregation
could be the prejudices ingrained into the students from a younger age.
These prejudices usually do not follow a logical thought process and rather focus on the ideologies being passed
down from generations.
To break this chain of generational prejudice building, schools need to encourage factual thinking and rationale
building from a very young age.
Students should be encouraged to observe facts and not opinions of others. Opinions should rather be based upon
the students’ own evaluation of facts and critical thinking. This would involve educational institutes trying to
inculcate a culture of higher order thinking (HOT) among students.
HOT takes thinking to higher levels than restating the facts and requires students to do something with the facts —
understand them, infer from them, connect them to other facts and concepts, categorize them, manipulate them,
put them together in new or novel ways, and apply them as we seek new solutions to new problems.
Continuing in this line, the curriculum should be fact-checked before being rolled out to students as having
opinionated study material fails the purpose of education at the core.
 Digital Pedagogy
An unequal representation of people from diverse backgrounds at higher echelons of the education system can also be attributed to a
collapse of the processes set in the foundational education systems.
An effective measure of countering this issue could be the digitization of the curriculum aimed at bridging the gap between schools in
developed localities and those from backward locations.
In a world disrupted by the covid-19 pandemic, technology can be used in creative and accessible ways to attract greater diversity to the
STEM pipeline.
Digital tools and platforms can democratize the educational experience while offering a high degree of personalization unique to every
student.
Acknowledging the changing nature of new media practices and interaction, digital pedagogy centres the student by designing various
student-led, collaborative and project-based activities to allow students to control the pace and space of learning
Online courses, video tutorials, virtual laboratories, digital repositories, and so on, can assist learning across genders and geographies.
Through Digitization, students can also gain an exposure to experiential activities such as film screenings, guest talks, and virtual museum
visits.
 Differently abled
•

• learning
Support and training should be available to enable families with specially abled children

There should be training institutions of specialist teachers for streamlined Special Schools and Mainstream classrooms

• A good method of teaching is based on multi sensory approach, whether teaching disabled or non-disabled children

• There is a need to re-examine values, beliefs and attitudes, that could only be done if a number of promotion programme
activities could be developed:

• Identification

• Outreach

• Parent education and empowerment

• Home-based services

• Development of classroom programmes

• Transition plans.
 REFERENCES
•https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2014/4/22/rampant-discrimination-in-indias-schools
•https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4367071/
•https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discrimination_in_education
•https://childdevelopmentinfo.com/learning/education-begins-at-home/
•https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_pedagogy#:~:text=Acknowledging the changing nature of,pace
and space of learning
•https://www.nap.edu/read/10236/chapter/2#6
•https://tcf.org/content/report/how-racially-diverse-schools-and-classrooms-can-benefit-all-students/?agreed=1
•https://inservice.ascd.org/7-ways-to-create-an-inclusive-classroom-environment/
•https://www.news18.com/news/opinion/iits-iims-should-not-consider-caste-policies-west-would-brand-racist-l
ook-at-diversity-in-ivy-leagues-3538529.html
•https://www.news18.com/news/opinion/iits-iims-should-not-consider-caste-policies-west-would-brand-racist-l
ook-at-diversity-in-ivy-leagues-3538529.html
•https://theprint.in/india/education/diversity-deficit-in-iims-iits-just-23-sts-and-157-scs-in-9640-faculty-posts/1912
46/
•https://www.oxfamindia.org/blog/when-schools-continue-exclude-can-education-reduce-caste-discrimination-
india#:~:text=Caste based discrimination is
the,rights owing to their identity.&text=Discriminatory practices have been observed,students
face the most discrimination
 REFERENCES
•https://medium.com/age-of-awareness/caste-based-discrimination-in-indian-schools-21b477be395c
•https://www.indiatoday.in/education-today/featurephilia/story/need-of-accessible-infrastructure-in-education
al-institutions-divd-1596297-2019-09-06

•https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/science/need-to-reduce-gender-gap-in-stem-jobs-in-india/article
33324409.ece

•https://thewire.in/women/women-wont-study-stem-just-because-they-live-in-a-more-gender-equal-country
•https://scroll.in/article/971547/what-will-it-take-to-erase-gender-bias-in-science-and-tech-co-author-of-world-ba
nk-report-explains

•https://www.researchgate.net/publication/332874698_OVERVIEW_OF_MBA_PROGRAMS_IN_INDIA_FROM_
A_GLOBAL_PERSPECTIVE
•http://www.ametjournal.com/attachment/Ametjournal5/5 Rajasekar 16-8-13.pdf
•https://www.researchgate.net/publication/306147971_Relationship_among_Perceived_Stress_Academic_Per
formance_and_Use_of_Energy_Drinks_A_Study_on_Universities'_and_Medical_Students_of_Khyber_Pakht
unkhwa_Province_of_Pakistan

•https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2732004/
 43

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