Women Empowerment, A Myth or Reality? A Reflection on Gender Empowerment Measure, especially in Assam

Today society demands to formulate inclusive growth for our socio-economic development. In order to achieve this target, there should be a rationalization of the trend of growth of human resource development indices. Human resource development indicates two things: human development and human resource development. Human Resource development is measured by Human Development Index. Human development means the development of life expectancy at birth, literacy and decent standard of living. Human resource development means enlargement of the people's choices, their skills, capacities, attitudes etc. (UNDP Report, 1996) Besides these indicators of development as a whole, for measuring women empowerment there are separate indices for women itself. The Human Development Report in 1998 contains two gender aware measurements i.e. Gender-Related Development Index (GDI) and Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM). The GDI indicates three variables of Human Development Index for measuring women status regarding their life expectancy, educational attainment and their standard of living. The Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM) looks at women representation in parliament, women's share of managerial and professional job and women's share of national income. However, in the present society there is a demand to formulate human capital. It means that it is the quality of human beings which helps in the development of the country in accelerating the pace of development. For enhancing the pace of growth and development, there should be access to equal rights for everyone. But in reality we get a negative picture in the context of Gender Empowerment Measures. Whenever we talk about the status of women then it has been found that more than 90% women are engaged in unorganized sector, their works are not officially counted, they get lower wage than the men for the same work, they have comparatively poor health status, low educational status, and lower skill than the men. They are generalized as a group of vulnerable and marginalized section in all spheres viz. in educational field, in social situation, in economic activities and political field and so on. Key words: Women, development and its reality

Accessibility and Equity: A Challenge for Higher Education in India

Education is power. It constitutes the foundation of all the multidimensional socio-economic development of a country. In the present context, we need manpower or human capital for generating the growth and development in a country. The Government of India has taken several many initiatives for promoting education at all the stages i.e. Primary, Secondary and Higher. But still, we find such issues as a high dropout rate at all the stages of education, rural-urban disparity, gender disparity, inter-state variations pose as some of the problems that impedes the development of human resources in our country. Even the work participation rate in India indicates the necessity of proper planning of skill training and employment opportunity. Most interestingly, the existing general and conventional higher educational institutions have not effectively been able to cope with the contemporary challenges and changes with the result that the nature of curriculum which is by and large in place tends to create only degree inflation in our country. So, we need such institutes and institutional arrangement that can cater to the contemporary challenges so as to upgrade the quality of education as well as to provide need based educational programmes that can develop human power in the society. Effective or quality education especially at higher level can play a vital role in bringing around multifaceted human resource development, enabling the learner's absorption in the job market and self-employment. This paper will discuss how the accessibility of education can be promoted to all through a convenient mode of education system and how the disparities in education can be minimized, and also focus on the various strategies for strengthening higher education system in the country. Keywords: Access, Equity and Higher Education in Indi

Effectiveness of Open and Distance Education and the Relevance of ICT: A North-East Indian Perspective

In today's Knowledge Society, it is almost accepted by common agreement that open and distance learning (ODL) has enabled people to develop different levels of proficiency in various fields. The application of information and communication technology, commonly known as ICT in ODL has not only made teaching-learning an interesting activity, but has also helped in inculcating a practical mindset among the learners. ICT-enabled learning as a surrogate system of the conventional ODL has released a lot of avenues for the people. In this context, it is not surprising to find that the relevance of ICT in the education sector of the North Eastern part of India has been being increasingly realized in recent times. The National Knowledge Commission of India too that has laid unprecedented attention on the ICT sector and its use in educational purposes, thereby helping to restore the potentials of ICT to every individual hailing from each and every corner of India. This paper seeks to address some of the assumptions that ICT enabled teaching learning has the potential to drastically change the educational scenario of the North Eastern part of India. Key Words:ICTs and Open and Distance Learningin North East of Indi

Perception towards online/blended learning at the time of Covid-19 pandemic: an academic analytics in the Indian context

Purpose – During any crisis situation like a pandemic, war or natural disaster, online/blended learning could meet the academic needs of the learners in a bigger way. The use of information and communication technology (ICT)-based technologies has converted the entire teaching pedagogy to a learner centred pedagogy, following which the skills of using technology are to be seen as the most essential qualifications on the part of both the teachers/educators and learners. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to understand the perceptions of the teachers and learners regarding the use of online/blended learning modes in teaching learning transactions. Another purpose of the paper being to find out the prospects and challenges of providing online/blended learning in a country like India, particularly during and in post-Covid-19 situations. Design/methodology/approach – The academic analytics approach was used for the study. A structured questionnaire was designed in Google Forms covering the perceptions of the teachers and learners in different Indian universities and colleges regarding online/blended services and analysis was done using Google Analytics. Further, analysis of the data received had been done by using simple statistical tool like percentage. Findings – Blended learning could be the solution for providing education in the context of the 21st century India. However, unlike in case of the conventional education, open education has widened the scope of learning adhering to the motto – “Bring your own device” to learn. The extensive use of open educational resources, massive open online courses, social media and meeting apps during the Covid-19 lockdown, has opened up the minds of the knowledge-hungry people, further enabling them to receive the necessary educational inputs, training and skills even during the current pandemic situation. This is going to have a big impact in the ways of educational transactions in the days to come. Research limitations/implications – The discussions in the paper are limited to a study of representative states of India, and it is a general study only. The sample size was limited to only 120 as the response rate was significantly low compared to the number of addressees to whom the questionnaire was sent. Practical implications – This study will help in understanding the present state of online/blended learning in a country like India. The use of online learning was no doubt intensified by the sudden outbreak of the Covid-19 Pandemic. However, the study will also help in preparing a roadmap, at the policy level, regarding the beneficial use of online/blended teaching learning models both by the teachers and learners during any future crisis-like situations in a country like India. Social implications – Through this paper, a new social constructivism has been visualised to know the acceptability of online/blended learning opportunities on the part of the teachers and learners across India. If that social constructivism can actually be realised through the benefits of online learning, India might emerge as one of the important leaders of education in the coming days. To that extent, the Covid-19 pandemic can be seen as a blessing in disguise. Originality/value – It is important to examine the perceptions of both teachers and learners on the use of online learning in their regular curriculum transactions most particularly when the whole world is facing the brunt of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has adversely affected millions of learners across the world. The paper is original because it explores the current state of online/blended learning in a developing country like India to provide a practical and realistic vision of a new way of learning in the post-Covid-19 situations

Challenges in Elementary Education in India: Various Approaches

Education is a vital means for the potentialities of a human being to emerge in a positive direction so that aman can live in society with full of dignity and can mould the habits, tastes and character of individualsliving in society by imparting knowledge and information. Therefore, in a democratic country like ours thegovernment has felt the needs and importance of education and has an onerous responsibility to implementplans and programmes for democratization of education in the country. Now, education is constitutionallyrecognized as a birth right of the citizens of the country. So, to make education accessible to all has been amission of the government and many targets like the Millennium Development Goal by 2015, India Visionby 2020, have been identified including that of Inclusive Growth by the government. It is appropriate for usnow to assess and evaluate the progress and the prospect of the approaches which are being implementedfor ensuring the universalization of elementary education in India.Key words: Education, various approaches and its achievemen