Bhopal varsity starts ‘Adarsh bahu’ course

Bhopal university was in the news because it could not decide if BCA students should write their papers in English or Hindi has decided to launch a short course to “prepare” our women to become “Adarsh bahus.” The irony lies in the fact that they actually believe that it’s a step towards women empowerment.

The three month long course will start from next academic session. Vice-chancellor Prof DC Gupta explained to The Times Of India that the objective behind the course is to “make girls aware so that they can adjust to the new environment after marriage”. He furthur added, “As a university, we have a few responsibilities towards society, as well. We should not be limited to academics alone. Our objective is to prepare such brides who will keep families intact.”

This is what education has come to. Girls in India should leave courses like MBA, B.Tech and learn to be good housewives. India would have progressed more if Mary Kom would have been a homemaker rather than a boxer or Kalpana Chawla would have rather learnt how to adjust to  ‘new family’ rather than space.

Prof Gupta crosses all limits of regression when he said, “It is a part of women empowerment.”

He told the daily, “We will include various related topics from sociology, psychology and such. Our aim is that after completing the courses, girls should be in a better position to understand the dynamics of families. It is our effort to bring about a positive change in society.” He added that 30 girls would be admitted to the course initially.

Traditional mothers-in-law and their misogynistic sons can finally rest easy because now the only perfect bride for your family is the one who has an ‘adarsh-bahu’ degree.  Forget Tulsi from ‘Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi’ and Parvati from ‘Kahaani Ghar Ghar Ki’ because now the idealistic bahu will be the one who has done this course.

However, educationists didn’t approve of the idea as much. “This is a funny idea, if BU indeed plans to implement it. The bigger need is to improve infrastructure, exams, classes and address the demands of students instead of venturing into such courses,” said retired professor HS Yadav.

In a world where we are talking about equality at home and workplace, women empowerment, feminism, such ideas only take us backwards.

Also read: Aligarh Muslim University issues strange advisory to educate students