Gender Neutral Representation in Jammu And Kashmir’s Textbooks: The Reform that Can’t Wait

Credit By: MEHVISH

• By RK Online Desk
• Comments 0
• 02 Apr 2026

Women inside, cooking. Men outside, assisting from a distance. That's the world my cousin is being introduced in Class 1

Last year, my six-year-old cousin, Azeem, ran up to me, excitement written all over his face. He'd just started Class 1 and wanted to show me his new textbooks. I smiled and sat down with him, expecting to flip through colourful pages of alphabets and simple stories. What I found instead made me uncomfortable.

We opened his Urdu textbook together. The first chapter that caught my attention was titled "Baraf aur Harissa." In it, young Sana asks her mother to prepare harissa, a traditional dish that takes hours of labour. The mother, naturally, is shown in the kitchen, cooking. The father? He's depicted going outside to bring things. I turned the page, hoping for something different. The next chapter was "Chachi ka Halwa." Again, chachi is cooking while chacha goes outside to fetch supplies.

Two chapters in and the pattern was clear. Women inside, cooking. Men outside, assisting from a distance. That’s the world my cousin is being introduced to in Class 1.

I couldn't stop thinking about it. Here was a child whose mind is still forming, who believes everything his textbooks tell him because they come with the authority of school and state. His mind, like a clean slate, ready to absorb whatever we write on it. But what are we writing? What lessons are we teaching about who belongs where and who does what?

I wish I could say those two chapters were exceptions. They're not. What I found is part of a systematic problem across JKBOSE textbooks.

What the Research Shows

A 2024 study published in Social Sciences & Humanities Open examined gender representation in JKBOSE language textbooks. Dr. Shabir Ahmad Para conducted a qualitative content analysis of ten language textbooks, five English and five Urdu, from grades I, III, IV, V, and VI.

His research reveals that despite revision according to NCF 2005 guidelines, these textbooks "lack relevance with the NCF 2005 guidelines and contribute towards the perpetuation of gender inequality." Male bias remains embedded in the core curriculum, with male characters dominating written text, male titles outnumbering female ones, and gender roles and activities following rigid traditional patterns.

In language textbooks overall, males outnumber females at a ratio of 3:1. English textbooks show 125 male characters versus only 64 females, a 2:1 ratio. But Urdu textbooks are even worse: 153 males to just 42 females, making it a 4:1 ratio. When it comes to lesson titles, the disparity continues, 26 titles feature male names while only 6 feature female names.

These ratios matter but what matters more is whose stories are told and how they're told.

The textbooks are filled with great men: Tipu Sultan fighting the British, Swami Vivekananda leading religious missions and Dr. Ambedkar uplifting communities. These men are portrayed as wise and courageous, making decisions that shape history. When it comes to professional life, they dominate every field: engineers, kings, courtiers, governors and historians.

Women? When they appear in public roles at all, they're almost exclusively teachers, an occupation conveniently seen as an extension of their "natural" nurturing roles. Worse still, women in these textbooks rarely exist as individuals. They're identified in relation to men, as someone's wife, someone's mother, someone's sister.

The pattern extends to activities and pursuits. Boys in textbooks go on adventurous trips to forests, escape hungry bears, play cricket and hockey. Meanwhile, girls are shown doing household work, caring for baby sparrows, expressing love for their brothers, and watching boys play cricket.

Think about what it teaches our children. Azeem is six. Will he grow up thinking his sister belongs in the kitchen? That certain careers and pursuits are "for boys" and others "for girls"?

And his sister, Aisha, what will she learn about her own potential? That she was born to cook and care? That she should aspire to make good harissa and halwa? That she is a background figure in a story written for and about boys?

But before we think this is just a Jammu and Kashmir problem, let me share something even more disturbing. A comprehensive 2024 study by researchers at the Center for Global Development analyzed 1,255 textbooks from 34 countries. They found that South Asia and India in particular, is among the worst regions in the English-speaking world for gender stereotypes and underrepresentation of women in schoolbooks.

What children read matters

Textbooks matter. They matter more than we sometimes want to admit. They are the foundations on which children build their understanding of the world. Before they have the experience or knowledge to question what they're being taught, textbooks tell them how society works, who holds power, what's normal, and what's possible. This is especially true in places like Jammu and Kashmir, where for many children, particularly in rural and semi-urban areas, textbooks are often the primary, sometimes only, source of information beyond their immediate surroundings. This gives these books enormous power to shape culture.

This is why gender-neutral representation matters primarily in textbooks. When children see people of all genders in diverse roles, they learn that human capabilities are human, not masculine or feminine. A girl who sees women as doctors, engineers, scientists, and leaders in her textbooks learns these roles are available to her. A boy who sees men as teachers, caregivers, nurses and cooks learns these roles belong to him too. It shows boys that caring for others isn't weakness and girls that achievement isn't transgression. Both learn that gender doesn't have to determine destiny.

The reverse is equally true, and far more damaging. When textbooks consistently show males in positions of authority and females primarily in domestic roles, children internalize these patterns as natural order. Boys develop a sense of entitlement to certain spaces and activities. Girls' self-esteem and aspirations narrow. A boy who never sees women in leadership grows up thinking women aren't suited for leadership. A girl who never sees men doing domestic work grows up believing it's her responsibility, her natural role. Over time, both absorb the message that their paths are determined by their gender and not by their abilities or interests.

The Way Forward 

Kerala revised its textbooks in 2024. Students opening their textbooks found fathers grating coconut and preparing their daughters' favourite snacks. Simple images but powerful enough that an eight-year-old girl named Pavithra Krishna saw the picture and asked her father, "Why don't you do this at home?" 

That is what a textbook is supposed to do. Make a child question the world around her. Their 2023 Curriculum Framework explicitly mandates that there be no gender discrimination in language, theme, content, names, or illustration. The state did this partly in response to a spate of domestic abuse deaths, recognizing that textbooks play a role in shaping the attitudes that lead to violence against women.

If Kerala can do it, so can we.

It's time for the Jammu and Kashmir Board of School Education to take concrete action. Every textbook currently in use needs to be audited by independent experts in gender studies and child development who can identify both the obvious and the subtle biases. Clear guidelines need to be established for gender representation. At minimum, this means equal representation of male and female characters, diversity in the roles and careers shown for both genders, and mandatory inclusion of accomplished women from Jammu and Kashmir and beyond in lesson content.

Textbook authors and review committees need mandatory training on gender sensitivity. And this cannot be a one-time exercise; it requires regular audits, edition after edition, with a clear mechanism that ensures no textbook perpetuating gender inequality ever reaches our children. Aisha deserves better. And so does her brother Azeem.

(The Author is a law graduate from the University of Kashmir and currently presides over SAAYA, an NGO serving Kashmir’s underprivileged communities and can be reached at mehvish.uok@gmail.com)