Cafeteria vs Kitchenette approach

Let us not avoid discussion any more. We have suffered enough for keeping this approach. Sheer criticism devoid of any vision to carry out the much needed reforms, gives a false impression that we are not serious about the very idea of reforms.

But are they serious? I have a serious doubt in this regard as a preliminary analysis would suggest that at least two years of preparation must precede a change in the structure, content and intent of a magnitude such as those proposed in the CBCS. This period must be utilized for improving the infrastructure required for such an implementation along with holding a continuous series of refresher courses throughout the period to make any shift of this scale of its intended worth.

But do we need such reforms in the name of allowing the students to have a cafeteria approach in studies? 

I would rather advocate for a kitchenette approach instead of the much talked about cafeteria approach. A cafeteria requires the user to pay for each optional toppings and this restricts the choice whereas the kitchenette approach allows you to choose from whatever is made available to the user.

Why do we need a change? 

In this new era only those would be able to survive as 'learned' who would learn how to unlearn and relearn with ease. A new educational policy must focus on encouraging self-study instead of the present forced-study approach in our country. With this in mind, stress on online studies must be given its due importance within the courses. The colonial era concept of having a "fixed span period" must be done away with to give everyone a chance to acquire a degree in a discipline of one's own choice. The age bar for admission and a span period to accumulate the required credits will have no meaning if one is to be given a choice to keep on accumulating credits "at one's own pace" to finally become eligible for a degree. We have enough of this forced concept of studies. Forced by parents, forced by peers, forced by teachers and forced by examinations! It is now known that those students who take admissions under 'working professionals' category wherein the admission itself is earned by them out of their choices are seen to be far more motivated than the others. And a motivated students can learn at a much faster speed and in a more meaningful manner. And for them who want to learn a subject - our examinations work as a spirit dampener. Understanding becomes a casualty in our examinations - thanks to the undue importance to the marks that we have become so used to now. Knowing well that we can only group students under a handful of categories (such as - extraordinary, good, above-average, average, below average, poor and worthless) our system makes them waste their useful energy and time to get exhausted in a process of rote-learning to acquire a rank within a category.

Come on - let us lead the change - otherwise they would succeed in their design to paint us wrongly as a group that is always opposed to the reforms.

Let us carry out the Change

It is never wise to reject a system without reasons. We had arguments against the semester system to arrive at a unanimous decision of opposing the same. We had reasoned out the absurdities in the FYUP. Our stands in these cases were never blind and were always based on their detailed analysis. We therefore, must spare ourselves from becoming slaves of our final decisions. Our opposition for FYUP or the CBCS were not because of their nomenclature but because of the objectives behind them. Now, an effort is being made to pull us all into the trap of opposing every change in the name of our well-meaning decisions of opposing these formulations. It often reminds me of the laughable stand of the university wherein they have resorted to notify all kinds of teachers' strikes as illegal not because of the issues at hand but by citing a court order that is arguably quoted completely 'out of context'. Let us remind ourselves that even our existing migration schemes are nothing but our own method of transferring credits from one college to the other. We were also never opposed to another credit transfer scheme wherein we were absolutely comfortable in transferring our Honours students to the respective program courses when they used to get less than a threshold marks. Whereas the DTF has a history of taking an ideological stand irrespective of the stand of DUTA, recently the DU authorities helped them in creating a space and environment wherein all of us were pushed to appear on their side. What helped them was the idiocy with which FYUP was formulated and implemented as these did not confine to the format alone but spilled over even to the contents and the syllabus. Whereas we all can feel the relevance and usefulness of even the foundation courses that have been designed in other institutes such as IISc (Bangalore), in DU they were reduced to jokes because of their compulsory nature, the unreasonable weightage attached with these courses, the standard of the contents and above all the state of unpreparedness with which these were launched. The DU authorities were further exposed defenceless as all these experiments were being carried out in an isolated manner ONLY in this university – thereby defeating the very purpose for which it was championing. The fact that these changes were being implemented without affecting the desired changes in the approach of school-teaching further established beyond doubts that the experiments were badly designed, were ill-thought and hurriedly approached.

Even if we decide to leave all the above arguments aside, does it not make sense in having broad centralized guideline to help different universities to come some kind of an even-level wherein assessment of students from different universities would not remain as difficult as it is now. Just as we have a CBSE syllabus to guide all other boards to keep up with the pace, relevance and some sense of uniformity, is it not time to discuss the same in the area of higher education too? Just as we all were unanimous in opposing the experiments that were carried out in our university it is also a fact that we all are not happy with state of education in this country.

Let us not run away from discussions as there is no other known way to arrive at a consensus. CBCS or a modified FYUP – what would ensure a better performance of any new system of education is our involvement and preparedness that will eventually help us in developing the necessary confidence and conviction – to make any new system deliver.

India - a country of rapists?

Do you know what made Phoolan Devi an Indian icon? Because of an impression, true or false, that she murdered her rapists to teach them a lesson. And do you know why Gopal Kanda lost his elections recently? Because he is understood to be the real reason behind the death of Ms Geetika Sharma and her mother. Can you recall why the IPS officer R K Sharma was running for cover? Because someone pointed out that he had exploited a lady journalist Shivani Bhatnagar. And do you know what had made Ruchika Girhotra, a tennis player, resonate with our collective feelings when she stood up against another infamous IPS officer S P S Rathore ? Because she had exposed a rapist's intentions. Do you know where did the talented and promising movie star Shainey Ahuja go? The rape blame consumed his career. - For God's sake let us think twice before painting this country as a place of rapists. That the Indian mass felt outraged on the Nirbhaya's case was no exception but only a culmination of the continuous testing of our collective patience.

We have always raised our voice - it is also logical to feel outraged and disgusted, but let us never ignore that India is a place where rapists run for cover. Rapists can do almost anything to hide their face and identity. This country has no history of celebrating rapes and instead has been instrumental in making the life hell for the rapists. Apart from the alarming lack of will that our administration has exhibited over the years in delaying the justice to the victims where our country needs to correct itself in a major way is the manner in which we treat our rape-victims. Yes, there may be many elected politicians who are facing serious rape charges but for heaven's sake refrain from concluding that they get elected only because of that.

On yet another serious note, allow me to say that when a father asks a girl to take precaution, when a brother begs her to be cautious – isn't it completely insensitive to blame them of having rapists' mindset? What purpose does it serve when we justify blaming a helpless well-wisher to be possessing a rapist's attitude? Aren't the slut walking and kissing protests targeted only to provoke a large section of well meaning members of the society by blaming them and the entire society as a rapists' society?

I have been brought up in a family where even boys who used to roam around aimlessly or only for unnecessary fun was considered bad. We boys were not given easy permission to watch even a late night movie. We were asked to change our association if we were seen to be a part of a group consisting of students who were not career oriented. We were, thankfully, even beaten for not taking our health, behavior and studies properly. I am pretty sure that I am not alone sharing these experiences here. I would not deny that these restrictions were more on the girls within the family but to say that boys were left on their own would be only a conspiratorial misrepresentation of the facts. Where we have erred probably is that when the society realized the need to have career oriented girls, in its intention to provide them the desired liberty it neglected a desired care for the boys. Boys, instead of allowing the girls to become at par with them, almost inadvertently, went beyond their desired limits trying to keep their earlier parity intact. Mistaking that boys will remain the same, they were probably not given proper attention during this development and were allowed to enjoy an uncontrolled upbringing.

There is no escape from building a system that has a potential to deliver the justice sooner. But that is only an administrative solution that can help us only in setting examples. On the other hand, the society must also prepare itself to educate men and boys – sensitize them – and make them aware about the modern needs of the society where even girls need to be educated and career oriented. Unless the new generation is imparted with these values through the education, our old values that were meant for our earlier society structure will keep on confronting with the recent reality. And the criminal minds will keep on extracting, manufacturing, manipulating and misrepresenting reasons to justify the unjustifiable. Let us not allow others to get a chance, intentional or otherwise, to see us through the minds of these rapists.

Women in India - is there a hope?

No other society can match the number of reforms that ours has successfully carried out. Our ability to allow and encourage questions is simply unparalleled. That our society still exists and has remained alive and kicking transcending eras of conflicts and invasions - is a proof enough to convince that we have always remained open to questions and reforms. Yes, the kind of individualistic freedom that the today's modern world advocates might not have existed earlier - but the current model is yet to prove its worth. Individual freedom at the cost of maintaining an order in the society has remained a point of real concern for the modern day social scientists. How far is enough - has been the question that the modern world has often struggled to answer. On the other hand, that our society has managed reasonably well in accommodating diverse views and conflicting interests and that too with considerable ease - can only be a matter of amusement for the west. More than us, the West needs to learn from us on how to live in this manner. 

Our present rogue and rotten understanding of the issue of respecting our women and allowing them a desired space is nowhere near to what is depicted in our mythology. The present outlook can only be understood to have got developed over the years during adverse circumstances when probably the society was left with no other alternative to keep. This skewed opinion to put women under so much of restrictions must have been our way to defend us from our inability to affect the required changes in the system that ruled us. A loss of confidence in the ruling system can only be the reason of affecting such transformation where 'precautions' started dominating over 'justice' and 'reasoning'. Yes, the idea of having 'Kunti' or 'Draupadi' may not pass the current scrutiny based on the modern world norms but quite strangely it also appears as un-Indian if it is compared with the present India. The idea of a character "Durga' and 'Kali' on one hand and "Saraswati' and 'Laxmi' on the other may not be 'perfect' by the standards of our modern world but nevertheless they also collide head-on with our current opinion about women. 

Our 'glorious past' may not pass the quality test on a scrutiny based on the parameters of today's modern society but it would only be absurd to overlook the same just because it fails to show us a rosy picture when viewed with a microscope of today's world. Why can't we be asked to change our microscope itself. For it is high time that we start inspecting the idea of putting individual concerns ahead of the concerns of the society as that has only resulted in encouraging a culture of violence and dissatisfaction - prevalent everywhere today. A disturbed and agitated society that lost its patience on the rape-events in the absence of any effective action by the system has shown enough glimpses to prove that branding us as a society that encourages rape-culture is patently unjustified. This strategy is intended only to encourage 'Mukesh Singhs' and abuse and suffocate 'Nitbhayas'.