LEARNING IS LIFE

  Woman are still the most deprived societal group: Special on India's National Women's Day  In India, February 13 is observed as National Women's Day to commemorate the birth anniversary of Sarojini Naidu who was a freedom fighter, political leader and poetess. She had a sweet and melodious voice and was often called the “Nightingale of India”.  The observance is meant to recognize the significant contributions in various walks of life besides raising awareness about gender disparities, insensitivity, inequities and challenges being faced by women. Many countries celebrate both their women's national days and international day. Even in the western world gender inequities exist. Some women activists and supporters raise question like: What does it really mean to observe a special awareness day? Is it a day when by some fake signal are given that women have been given their rightful place in society by organising events of honouring few of them? Many others feel ...

  Creating Free Verses in Physics for Its Feminization: A Classroom Experiment on  Making Physics Female Friendly through Blank Verses   Abstract  There is a lot of concern these days for making physics instruction gender sensitive and female friendly. A pedagogic experiment for revising physics through creation of free verses of dream, persona and list varieties resulted in significantly favorable   reactions (N=30, M=18, F=12, age: 15-16 years, Grade ten, p≤<0.05, DF=2) on chi-square test. The procedure under action research methodology was that after three month long physics instruction the examples of chosen verses from language and physics were given by the investigator followed by creation of verses by the students for various technical terms from the textbook. In all, scores of verses were created which were exchanged among students through an exhibition mode. Six class sessions were spent on the experiment. Though the boys were almost equally divide...

  Where do we stand in empowering women in India?   ~Lalit Kishore IN INDIA, gender disparity manifests itself in various forms as is evident by declining sex ratio in the population, social stereotyping and violence against women at the domestic and societal levels. Discrimination against girl children, adolescent girls and women persists in education, health and development in many parts of the country.   The principle of gender equality is enshrined in the Indian Constitution in its preamble, fundamental rights, fundamental duties and directive principles. The Constitution not only grants equality to women, but also empowers the State to adopt measures of positive discrimination in favour of women.   Some of the steps taken for by the GoI for women empowerment are: •     From the Fifth Five Year Plan (1974-78) onwards there has been a marked shift in the approach to women’s issues from welfare to development. •    The national commissio...