The social context of women’s education in India how far things have changed, now and then: a critical evaluation

Education is a fundamental means to bring any desired change in society, which is an accepted fact throughout the world. Education helps to continue communication with known and unknown persons through technology and mass media. Further it helps to discriminate between wrong and right. Any attempt to deal with the issues of women’s education like access or enrolment, wastage and co-education etc is likely to be unrewarding unless the issues are viewed in their social context or we can say that neither the goals of women’s education, nor the issues relating to it can be properly understood except within the societal context. Women education in India has been a major preoccupation of both the government and civil society as educated women can play a very important role in the development of the country. Education of a woman is the most powerful tool of change of position in society. It also brings a reduction in inequalities and functions as a means of improving their status within the family. In the present paper, an attempt has been made to trace the changes in the education of women during the pre-independent and post independent era in India.