It has not been a long since my daughter was playing with a doctor toy set, and she said, “Mumma, I am pretending to be a nurse because I am a girl” and then proceeded to say that her cousin is a doctor because he is a boy. I was not sure where it is coming from.
I took her to the hospital with me on my regular check-up trip to meet with actual doctors in several departments there and see for herself, but she was still adamant about the idea of a girl being a doctor. Later, a day-care friend’s magic worked, and she came back home to tell us she will be a ‘blood doctor’. Hmmn ‘blood’; I guess she learned early to choose a career that she loves; blood doctor is perfect for a kid who loves vampire stories. Anyways, It was a relief, but I was still bewildered.
First Gender
During these online classes in the covid times, I gained more insight. The school textbooks still label vocations as a police’man’, a watch’man’, a post’man’ and so on. I had to keep emphasizing it’s a police officer, a guard, or a mail carrier. Further, it was so deeply rooted in our mind that whenever there are perfectly unrelated examples associated with cooking and kitchen appliances, the name of a mother comes up all the time. You can see at what level “maa ke haath ka khana” (Mom’s meal preparation) has been branded and advertised.
Here we are in the English class and learning “blending letters” - A juicer-mixer-blender can be found at ‘juice-walla’ too, not necessarily when a mom is preparing juice in her kitchen. My daughter is confused as I am the person who spends the least amount of time in the household kitchen.
A kid asks for a bio-break or a water-break, so we continue to hear the class-teacher saying, ‘Please ask your Mom’. The teacher who is assigning this responsibility to a mom, is herself a working person. This sort of additional responsibility that is burdened upon a specific gender whether having professional career or not is a double-standard. Such thoughtless responsibility classification is going to imprint in Kid’s mind. Please be cautious with your vocabulary.
Second Gender
Her cousin is in a higher grade, and textbooks have gone under a lot of changes since when we ourselves were in school. So from his Hindi textbook where we, as a student, have learned
राजू पढ़ रहा है translates to Raju is studying.
सीता बर्तन धो रही है translates to Sita is washing dishes.
They are now learning
राजू बर्तन धो रहा है translates to Raju is washing dishes.
सीता पढ़ रही है translates to Sita is studying.
This disapproves to the earlier depiction but is not reflecting on it with any corrections in the latter phrases either. Do not just reverse the roles, but bring a wholesome picture. A boy and a girl should both be studying and performing household chores to become a wholly evolved person.
Third Gender
This one is most important, and we are in the EVS class. The textbook has a chapter on ‘Gender’, which explains feminine and masculine genders. But it does not talk about all the other genders. Female and Male are binary. Where is the assignment for the non-binary gender? If we are not teaching gender neutrality at the early childhood level, then how gender equality can be rooted in these young minds?
Lastly, we are at the Art and Craft class. My daughter, who cannot focus for very long, was not listening and so, did not know what drawing they were making that day. I reminded her, “SNOWMAN”. She looked sharp into my eyes and said, “No, Mumma. It is a SNOWPERSON”.
All right. All is well that ends well.
