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A question of answers

catalyst Education spurs imagination

My great grandmother was probably uneducated. She had four daughters, no surviving son, no landed property. In the then prevailing societal bias towards landed property and sons being viewed as ‘social security’, she and her husband must have surely felt uneasy. I do not know for sure whether she was a visionary laying foundations for the future, or whether it was out of sheer despair that she decided to do what she did.

She educated her daughters and let them seek employment. These seem very simple steps today but in her day and age she was a revolutionary, and attracted taunting neighbours.

This power of her convictions led to not just her empowerment, but instilled in my grandmother a need to educate all her nine children of which three are daughters.

My grandmother herself had studied up to the eighth standard, the highest class in Amroha for girls then. But that was enough to develop in her a passion for learning, for being truly educated. She read books, listened to the radio, watched TV. Probably, what she did was to cement the seed of true empowerment sown by her mother.

Subsequently, it was relatively easier for her daughter – my mother – to educate me, and also for me to be what I am today.

Once, I was asked by someone how my family had reacted to my joining the Indian Police Service. The question certainly smacked of stereotypical notions. My answer was: “My family had educated me, supported me and enabled me to clear the UPSC exam. In fact, it was my grandmother, who upon hearing that I had made it to IPS, told me to go ahead and join work."

But having said this, I do consider myself extremely lucky to have been born into a family which did stress on education. Till then, I had not faced the other reality. But, that is not what I want to write here. Here, I want to raise a very basic issue as to what is education, and what does being educated mean.

But let’s first ask ourselves what being educated should not mean. Being educated should not mean that one has, while amassing diplomas and degrees, not learnt to question the status quo. That one has not learnt to grow out of one’s biases. To me, real education enables a person to set off on the path of evolution and empowerment.

Though we study a lot of subjects, most of which we forget as time passes, what remains, should remain, is important. It is the need to stretch boundaries, the need to try and find equilibrium.

Finally, what education should do is to fire the passion in us to learn. Yes, it is difficult to think of issues like education while reeling under poverty. Though money is essential to counter poverty, monetary help should always be linked to work – otherwise, it gnaws on self-esteem, and will merely create an army of dependants. For, education will eventually lead to capacity building and create an empowered society, which can differentiate right from wrong. It will spur imagination in us.

For me, education has opened the door to opportunity. It is a safety net against exploitation. A man/woman who is educated will be able to make use of his/her understanding to live a better life and strive to be a better citizen. A better informed individual will certainly ask difficult questions. And they will ensure that their children will have access to better opportunities, like my great grandmother did. NUZHAT HUSSAIN (The author is an IPS officer presently posted as Director,

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