‘Need to subsidise girls’ education for gender equality’

Gender discrimination was high in Uttar Pradesh as compared to several other states and so the state must work towards bringing equality, said Prof Geeta Kingdon, CEO, City Montessori, suggesting that the government should subsidise girls’ education.

Addressing a seminar on ‘Women in the Changing World of Work: Planet 50-50 by 2030’ organised by City Montessori School in association with the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahai’s of Lucknow, Holy Vision International, PRAYAS and Purvanchal Gramin Vikas Sansthan here on Monday, she said, “The status of men and women should be equal for two reasons – intrinsic and instrumental.

Intrinsic because the creator never differentiated between men and women and created both as equals and instrumental because women are capable of being treated at par with men in every scope of life.”

She said educating a woman produced more significant outcomes than men, yet women were deprived of similar standards of education, being considered a liability.

Reasons for gender bias were more sociological, she said as parents themselves discriminated between their sons and daughters.

Suresh Lahiri, deputy director, BETI Foundation, said that the foundation formed self help groups (SHG) of deprived and needy women and trained them in starting small enterprises like growing organic spices.

“Once they are trained, the foundation helps them in getting financial assistance from banks to start their own ventures and achieve economic independence,” he said.