Dr. Neetu Mahajan

As a mother delivers her child and family members become aware of this, happiness spreads around to see the boy or a girl. But if the child falls in none of these categories, everyone’s response is different, particularly in Indian context. A third gender (any gender other than boy or girl) child is not acceptable to the family. Such children are born from normal parents but are discarded usually. Such a strong abhorrence for hijras is so common that even if we talk about them, we imagine someone crossing by with loud makeup, cracked voice and clapping in a distinct manner. This is how we have conditioned our minds about transgender people. It is an irony that the people who are considered auspicious and so, are called for giving blessings to new-borns or newlyweds, are the same people who live their lives as an outlaw. This behaviour stems from the ignorance of people to understand them as they are, to realise how they feel, what problems they face and then co-operate them in lifting their status up. Education is a powerful tool to bring any change in society and teacher is a craftsman. For making efforts towards gender equity in the society, educating transgender people become the first and foremost step. This paper highlights the major problems faced by transgender people, need of their education and curriculum reforms needed for their inclusion. Keywords: Transgender, hijras, education.

Fair and beyond the world of social justice and global upliftment lays the hidden mysterious world of transgenders, commonly known as hijras or kinnars. Though they constitute a marginalised part of society, the reality of their existence and omnipresence is unavoidable. Being a part of third gender community, they are simply considered as a source of entertainment or a kind of prowler by so called social beings. Transgender community is always suspected and mostly neglected. Their birth is taken as a curse, their presence scornful. They have a challenged life, full of hardships and sufferings.

As a mother delivers her child and family members become aware of this, happiness spreads around to see the boy or a girl. But if the child falls in none of these categories, everyone's response is different, particularly in Indian context. A third gender (any gender other than boy or girl) child is not acceptable to the family. Such children are born from normal parents but are discarded usually. Such a strong abhorrence for hijras is so common that even if we talk about them, we imagine someone crossing by with loud makeup, cracked voice and clapping in a distinct manner. This is how we have conditioned our minds about transgender people. It is an irony that the people who are considered auspicious and so, are called for giving blessings to new-borns or newlyweds, are the same people who live their lives as an outlaw. This behaviour stems from the ignorance of people to understand them as they are, to realise how they feel, what problems they face and then cooperate them in lifting their status up. Education is a powerful tool to bring any change in society and teacher is a craftsman. For making efforts towards gender equity in the society, educating transgender people become the first and foremost step. This paper highlights the major problems faced by transgender people, need of their education and curriculum reforms needed for their inclusion.

Teacher education refers to the policies, procedures, and provision designed to equip teachers with necessary knowledge, attitudes, behaviours and skills. They need to perform their tasks effectively in the classroom, school and wider community. The teacher educators prepare quality teachers who in turn improve the quality of school education and also enhance the learning level of children. Every concerned person talks about quality education and it is not possible without the proper training of the teachers. Thus the growth and progress of teacher educating systems are very much important. For this, there have been reforms for preparing quality teachers. Programs, plans, and policies have been devised to achieve quality. In India, teacher education has always been recognized as one of the most crucial means of social and national development. This view has been reflected by several commissions and committees after independence. The Government of India set up many commissions and committees from time to time for addressing different issues of general education as well as teacher education. After independence efforts were made to tackle the emerging problem of access, quality and relevance of the teacher education system in the country. This paper elaborates the growth and progress of the teacher education system and reviews related reforms in India after independence.

The present study has been conducted on a sample of 300 students of Kangra district (Himachal Pradesh) to study the Self-Confidence of Senior Secondary School Students in relation on their Sex, Area and Streams of study. Random sampling technique was used for selection of the sample. The total numbers of students were selected from four government senior secondary schools (two each from rural and urban areas) of Kangra district. The data was analyzed statistically by using mean, standard deviation, t-test. Findings of the study was revealed that no significant difference in the level of self-confidence of the students in relation to their Area of residence. There is no significant difference in the level of self-confidence of the students in relation to their Sex. It was also found that there exists a significant difference in the level of self-confidence of the students in relation to their Streams of study.

An understanding of natural system combined with how they interact with human social system is the Environmental Awareness. The increase in economic activities in developing countries results in more energy consumption which generally leads to the environmental degradation. The success of environmental protection depends on the collective efforts and every member of the society shares the responsibility. So the present study is aimed to assess the environmental awareness among the people of Himachal Pradesh. This study is conducted through descriptive survey method and data is collected by the use of environmental awareness scale prepared by the use of mean, median, mode and standard deviation as statistical tools. The present study revealed that the females of Himachal Pradesh are more aware in comparison to that of the males of Himachal Pradesh. Overall as a whole, the level of environmental awareness is good in the people of Himachal Pradesh

Social media has achieved exceptional growth over the last decade by attracting much attention from all age group people. It is a known fact that young adults and teenagers are the most avid users of such sites. Online social networks have a great impact on the lives of young people. Moreover, social media usage by students is so rampant recently because of easy access to devices that are connected to the internet; such as smartphones, i-phones, blackberry, tablets, i-pad, and laptops. It is the best source to stay updated with information these days. But addiction to the usage of social media has extremely increased in recent times. Their peril affects the academic performance of over-involved students. The present paper highlights the effects of using social media on students, their attitude towards social media and the effects of social media on the physical and mental health of secondary school students.

Fair and beyond the world of social justice and global upliftment lays the hidden mysterious world of transgenders, commonly known as hijras or kinnars. Though they constitute a marginalised part of society, the reality of their existence and omnipresence is unavoidable. Being a part of third gender community, they are simply considered as a source of entertainment or a kind of prowler by so called social beings. Transgender community is always suspected and mostly neglected. Their birth is taken as a curse, their presence scornful. They have a challenged life, full of hardships and sufferings.