'Are we really teaching our children this drivel?': Furore over sexist passage in CBSE paper

“In the twentieth century children became fewer and the feminist revolt was the result”. “The emancipation of the wife destroyed the parent’s authority over the children”. “The mother did not exemplify the the obedience upon which she still tried to exist” - No, no. We’re not reading from some ancient, regressive Victorian 1950’s relic on model behaviour for women - these lines were part of a CBSE class 10 paper, as recently as last week.

The CBSE reading comprehension was part of a class 10 english paper and offered an explanation on how children are no longer effectively disciplined in households, due to lack of obedience by mothers, and diminishing patriarchal control in homes.

Images of the exam paper went viral over the weekend, with many expressing strong displeasure at the curriculum being taught to the children. The hashtag “CBSE insults women” was trending on twitter, with many calling out the board for being regressive.

Fresh on the poll promise of empowerment for women, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also took to Twitter to express her disappointment at the exam paper asking “are we really teaching our children this drivel?” Rahul Gandhi too expressed his contempt at the paper and said “Hard work pays, Bigotry doesn’t" Congress President Sonia Gandhi also brought up the objectionable passage in the Lok Sabha.

The backlash has prompted the national school board to refer the matter to subject experts. However this incident forces us to ask the question, how are young minds being shaped by our curriculum? This is clearly not the first time when textbooks or papers have had objectionable material. Textbooks have in the past shown sports as being a purely male bastion, or furthering Eurocentric standards of beauty. Problematic fairy tales, nursery rhymes, toys - are all guilty of shaping the way children look at the world.

When early socialisation plays such an pivotal role in sculpting world views, viewing the material that we give children from a more sensitised and critical lens is slowly becoming the need of the hour.