Update: After the publication of this article, a representative from CBSE reached out to us and shared the following press release, which sheds more light on the book and CBSE/NCERT’s prescribed curriculum.
Who is a ‘modern girl’ in your opinion?
Well, according to this book titled ‘Current School Essays and Letters’, the modern woman is a ‘self-centered creature’ and the reasons being that she likes to keep up with the latest trends, talks to boys and even imitates the boys.
As you can guess, the essay is full of stereotypes and prejudices against women. The part that is the most disturbing is that this book is meant for young, impressionable children.
This essay from a book intended for young students of CBSE and ICSE was brought to attention through a social media post and since it started getting circulated, it has been gathering angry responses from various people.
What is even more surprising is that the author of the book, Purabi Chakraborty, seems to be an extremely well-educated woman who has a Masters in English and also, a degree in education.
However, the statements made by her are dripping with casual sexism and honestly, the tone used almost makes her sound like a neighborhood aunty who has the most regressive opinions. Statements like, ‘The modern girl is no longer a shy, obedient and homely creature like she used to be’ clearly shows that a woman, in her opinion, is generally supposed to be a mere ‘creature’ rather than a human being with any sort of rights.
She attacks women who wear jeans, watch movies or are ambitious enough. In fact, the essay mentions that these ‘modern girls’ are so ambitious that they would not hesitate talking to men. She mentions multiple times that women are just imitating men without mentioning the fact that patriarchy has stopped women from making their own life choices for decades. To think that young children are being imparted with this kind of ‘education’ is a scary a prospect, something even the internet realizes:
Towards the end, she even blames the parents who have failed to teach their daughters how to behave in schools and at home because obviously, girls are the only ones in this society who need to learn how to behave.
While we’re glad that Ms. Purabi’s own regressive mindset didn’t stop her ambitious self from writing a whole book, we wish she would extend the same courtesy to all other ‘modern women.’