RAPID PROGRESS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23071, 23 June 1938, Page 4

RAPID PROGRESS

EDUCATION IN INDIA WOMEN'S FINE SOCIAL WORK FIGHTING AGAINST DISEASE The rapid progress of education in India during the last ton years and the work done by educated Indian women were described by Mrs. .7. C. Carver, of Surrey, England, who arrived at Auckland yesterday by the Wanganella from Sydney. She has spent the last three months in Bombay. " Education for women has become increasingly popular in India and* much is beiiig done to assist and further tin" education of girls of all classes," said Mrs. Carver. She described a visit to the Chanda Ramgi Girls' High School, a secondary school with over 600 pupils, and said that girls were admitted- from the age of 10 years and prepared for matriculation. During the last 11 years the scl 00l had had 100 per cent passes in this examination. Home Training " The curriculum of the Chanda Ramgi Girls' High School is even more practical and comprehensive than that of most of our Western schools," sin* continued. • "Educationists in India have realised early the importance of training a girl thoroughly for home life as well as for a career or an industrial position. In addition to the usual school curriculum there are taught such subjects as drawing, painting, embroidery, hygiene, domestic science in all its branches, social deportment, current world and national affairs, dressmaking and typewriting. "Forty per cent of the pupils to-day, continue their education after leaving school," said Mrs. Carver. " The University of Bombay is one of the most efficient of its kind and many of its graduates become doctors, teachers and lawyers. Fine Social Work " Educated Indian women are also doing a tremendous amount of social work, especially among poor people and in connection, with the juvenile Courts. There are 12 women magistrates in Bombay, including three Parsees, three Hindis, three Europeans, and three Mahometans," said Mrs. Carver. Describing the juvenile Court work in Bombay, Mrs. Carver said it was conducted on the most practical lines. The children wore first remanded to rescue homes and after trial Avere sent to reformatories or industrial institutions, where they were taught some trade, such as carpentry or canework. Some of the girls were'sent as probationers to hospitals to be trained in nursing. Many of these children were destitute orphans. ■ Fatalism a Difficulty

" A further aspect of the work of educated. Indian women lies in their .attempt to fight the many diseases which occur and spread so rapidly in India," added Mrs. Carver. " Everything 13 being done to train nurses for the hospitals, to teach them how to avoid and isolate disease. The greatest difficulty* in fighting disease in India lies in overcoming the fatalism of the people by education. After the nurses are trained they are sent out among their own people to teach them that disease can be avoided and that it is not a punishment from God. " The problem of tuberculosis, one of the most prevalent diseases in India, is now being dealt with in an adequate manner with good hospitals and sanatoriums, and above all, well trained nurses," said Mrs. Carver. She spoke of the importance of good nurses in the prevehtion of disease. Among people of Eastern races in whom custom and fatalism wore very strong characteristics, their work was as much educational as practical.