Social Exclusion of Women and Education in Kashmir

Abstract

Among the various forces of development and modernization, education is an important one. Education can help in abolishing the traditional practices detrimental to individual and society in general and women in particular. It generates awareness about long established beliefs and practices. Keeping these points in mind, the paper attempts to see how education affects the age old practice of dowry system. It also shows that, education, instead of curtailing the problems, has aggravated the same. It has been observed that more the educated women, more is the favorable attitude towards the dowry. For the educated female, appropriate match is found relatively less because they prefer to marry either equally qualified person or more than them. So, the educated qualified male are prized more because of their less number. Similarly the educated male also bargains for his qualification. Parents of such grooms, demand dowry because they think that it is a compensation for the investment they have already made on the upbringing of their son. The darker side of the reality is that even highly qualified girls pay dowry on their marriages. This reflects the inferior status of women in the Indian society. Against this backdrop the paper aims to highlight the various issues related to women as being one of the socially excluded groups in the context of Kashmir.