CBSE drops ‘disobedient wives’ question, to award full marks

Congress president Sonia Gandhi speaks in Lok Sabha on Monday

The CBSE on Monday dropped a comprehension passage and the accompanying questions from the Class-10 English exam and decided to award full marks for it to students, following an outrage over the board allegedly promoting "gender stereotyping" and supporting "regressive notions".

In the Std 10 exam conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Saturday, the question paper carried a comprehension passage with sentences such as "emancipation of women destroyed the parents' authority over the children" and "it was only by accepting her husband's way that a mother could gain obedience over the younger ones".

Another portion said that "women gaining independence is the main reason for a wide variety of social and family problems". It went on to add "if wives stops obeying their husbands, that is the main reason children and servants are indisciplined".

In Lok Sabha, Congress president Sonia Gandhi condemned the question calling it a "blatantly misogynist" passage and demanded an apology from the Narendra Modi government. "I wish to draw the attention of Gov to the nationwide outrage regarding the shockingly regressive passage in grade X of CBSE exam…," she said.
Many opposition parties also offered views on similar lines.

"...it has been decided to drop the passage and the accompanying questions," CBSE Examination Controller Sanyam Bhardwaj said on Monday, adding that "full marks will be awarded for this passage to all the students concerned".

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