In this third report to the same government, and with the advantages of a still wider experience, after substantially reiterating the statement of the fact, that nowhere is there any indigenous school for girls, he proceeds thus:—
“I made it an object to ascertain, in those localities in which a census of the population was taken, whether the absence of public means of native origin for the instruction of girls was to any extent compensated by domestic instruction. The result is, that in thanas Nanglia, Culna, Jehanabad, and Bhawara, domestic instruction was not in any one instance shared by the girls of those families in which the boys enjoyed its benefit; and that in the city of Moorshedabad, and in thana Daulatbazar of the Moorshedabad district, I found only five, and those Musalman families, in which the daughters received some instruction at home. In one of these instances, a girl about seven years of age was taught by a Kath Molla the formal reading of the Koran; in another instance two girls, about eight and ten years of age, were taught Persian by their father, a Pathan, whose object in instructing his daughters was stated to be to procure a respectable alliance for them; and in the three remaining families, four girls were taught mere reading and writing. This is another feature in the degraded condition of native society; the whole of the juvenile female population, with exceptions so few that they can scarcely be estimated, are growing up without a single ray of instruction to dawn upon their minds.”
As the natural and unavoidable result of such total deprivation of the means of instruction in youth, the state of instruction amongst the adult female population is that of an utter blank. In the whole city and district of Moorshedabad he only found nine women, who could read or write, or rather who could merely decipher writing, or sign their names. “In all the other localities,” adds he, with unwonted emphasis, “in all the other localities, of which a census was taken, no adult females were found to possess even the lowest grade of instruction.”
Lastly, in order to convey a clear and definite view of the precise extent of indigenous education, and consequently a clear and definite apprehension as to how far it comes short of the great object to be accomplished, which is none other than that of affording the means of instruction to the whole teachable population,—we shall present an aggregate estimate of the number and proportion of the instructed and uninstructed divisions of the juvenile community. Let it be remembered that the teachable or school-going age has, after due consideration and inquiry, been assumed to be between 14 and 5 years. Let it also be remembered, that under the term “instructed,” are
are prostitutes by profession, also acquire some knowledge of reading and writing, in order to enable them the better to carry on their clandestine correspondence and intrigues. With these few unimportant exceptions, Mr. Adam peremptorily assures us, that “the total number of grown up females may be reckoned as destitute of instruction in letters.”
