The annual education ritual in the announcement of national scholarship winners by the Ministry of Education, clearly demonstrates the high educational attainment of our girls–many of Indian descent. Last year the majority of national scholarship winners were female and the two President's Medal winners, the highest academic excellence, were both female and of Indian ancestry.
It is not surprising, therefore, that a media release datelined: 'Washington, January 7, 2016, (IANS)' headlined an article: "Indian-American women earn more than white men."
The article reads: "While full-time working women in the US may earn 79 cents on the dollar compared to men, Indian-American women actually earn more on average compared to non-Hispanic white men, according to a media report. Mark Perry, an economist at the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute, came to this startling conclusion based on an analysis of a new government report on the gap between men's and women's earnings.
"The Chinese-American women earn about the same as white men, he concluded based on data on annual incomes from the 2014 American Community Survey, which are slightly different from the weekly wage data used by the Bureau of Labour Statistics (BLS).
"Education has a lot to do with the Asian-woman advantage, Perry wrote, noting more than half of Asian Americans over 25 have a bachelor's degree or higher, compared to only 33 per cent of non-Hispanic whites. And 21.8 per cent of Asian Americans also have graduate or professional degrees, compared to 12.8 per cent of non-Hispanic whites.
"Asian Americans are 50 per cent more likely to have bachelor's degrees and nearly twice as likely to hold PhDs, law degrees, MBAs or MDs. Educational attainment is even higher for some ethnic groups. About 72 per cent of Indian Americans have four-year college degrees, and a whopping 40 per cent have some professional or graduate degree.
"Indian Americans are more likely to have advanced degrees than white Americans are likely to have finished college. It's not surprising then, that Asian-Americans tend to out-earn other groups, the Post said."
In the United States of America data is collected and analysed on every subject and about every ethnic group. The information is critical in formulating policies that will encourage greater effort to succeed. In the local context, this type of study and analysis is regarded as racial profiling and condemned.
In T&T there is a general perception that the Hindu woman's role in society is to get married in the early teens, bear children and ensure that the home and family is cared for. This profiling would have been accurate before 1950, but with the formation of the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha and the establishment of Hindu schools and the emphasis on education, the role of the Hindu woman has changed dramatically.
The founder, President General of the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha, Bhadase Sagan Maraj, during his lifetime insisted that the Hindu families send their girl children to school and to ensure that they excel at every level. He is remembered for making a speech in the Debe/Penal educational catchment where he said: "If parents do not send your girls to school, I will send the schools to your girls." And in every road in this area there is a Hindu school or college.
Today, we notice that the young Hindu girl has special preferences for certain professions and she is pursuing them with vigor. Her preferences are in the field of medicine, pharmacy, law, accountancy and in recent times engineering. She is already dominant in the teaching profession.
But the old colonial profiling of the Hindu woman still persists in many circles. In her book, Roles and Rituals for Hindu Women, Julia Leslie has compiled the writings of a number of renowned scholars who have studied the changing role of the Hindu woman. In the introduction titled, Hearing the Voices of Women, she writes:
"In the context of Hinduism, dowry may be empowering for some women; purdah may be liberating for others; sati may be the only positive option available. It is important to realise that such choices–are being made by women who see themselves not as victims of their culture but as active agents in the creation of their own identity and that of their daughters.
"Hindu women do not simply accept the oppressive constructions imposed on them by Hindu men and non-Hindus generally. Yet much of the recent work on women betrays an inability to see past what Parminder Bhachu calls the 'triple subordination' of racism, sexism and classism and hence, an inability to question the model of Asian (or, in this case, Hindu) women as negative, passive and powerless.
"We therefore, need to investigate precisely this power of Hindu women to choose what may seem oppressive to outsiders in order to create a positive construct for themselves."
On Sunday, January 10, 2016 I attended a Hindu function at a Mayaro beach-front where the "Makar Sanskranti" prayers were being offered. Over one thousand Hindus were present and in my message I pointed to the fact that over 80 per cent of the devotees present were women and this is where the strength of the community lies.