Students to Get Lessons on Respecting Women, Road Rules

Hyderabad: School textbooks could have lessons in social responsibility for students, with the government saying that it wanted to introduce chapters from the next academic year relating to road safety, and respect for women. Ministers Ponnam Prabhakar and Danasari ‘Seethakka’ Anasuya announced the proposals during their replies to discussions on Budget grants for their respective departments.

Transport minister Ponnam Prabhakar said Telangana was seeing an average of 20 deaths a day in road accidents, and that this was a cause for concern. In a clear indication of the role parents play in the lives of school going children, Prabhakar said “from the next academic year, parents will have to provide signed affidavits that they will follow road safety rules.”

Indicating that this would be mandatory, Prabhakar said there was a need to educate school-going children on road safety aspects. The government was holding Road Safety Council meetings once in three months involving all stakeholders but indicated that more was needed to be done to make roads in the state safer.

Seethakka, who heads the women and child welfare ministry, said a proposal to include a chapter on respecting women must be included in school textbooks adding that such education was required to start early. “Textbooks must have lessons on respecting women, and the punishments for disrespecting them. We live in a male dominated society and women are seen as playthings or as those confined to kitchens,” she said, calling for the need to start teaching children early on respecting women.

Seethakka, without mentioning the entertainment industry, said that some sections of ‘media’ are playing a role in the skewed portrayal of women, resulting in the present attitudes towards women in society.