What Sidhak wants is a kitchen set. All her friends have one, and when her “Daarji”, who’s cooking in the kitchen, ignores her, she gets petulant. “Daarji just doesn’t care,” she says. Instead, her grandfather asks her to watch the Republic Day parade.Reluctantly, Sidhak watches it and sees a woman fighter pilot salute her national flag. Then she forgets all her annoyance. “How big are these? Can I also fly them?” she asks, just as her grandfather intended. Sidhak forgets all about the kitchen set and instead gets a miniature fighter jet as a “gift”.The story, titled ‘A Gift for Sidhak’, is part of the Class 7 curriculum in Punjab government schools and the state government’s campaign to buck gender stereotypes and redefine gender roles. Five years after the Punjab Education Department collaborated with the NGO Breakthrough and The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab South Asia (J-PAL) in 2021 to integrate ‘Gender Sensitisation’ into the regular curriculum, the change is visible on the pages.From explaining how gifting kitchen sets to girls and cars or aeroplanes to boys can influence gender roles to highlighting women previously relegated to the margins of history, the new curriculum is aimed at one thing: understanding, questioning and countering gender biases from a very young age.These efforts are particularly visible in the English and social studies curriculum — from stories such as ‘A Gift for Sidhak’ to viewing important historical figures such as Razia Sultana and Nur Jahan through a different lens.The efforts are not just for students but also for teachers, Sunita Prabhakar, component head for the Gender Sensitisation curriculum of the Punjab Education Department, tells The Indian Express.“The teaching material or books alone can’t bring the change. We have trained teachers on how to convey such lessons in the classrooms. The curriculum now also includes stories on how families should support women’s career ambitions and men should also participate in household chores,” she says.Bucking gender normsStory continues below this adThe books that saw the most changes belong to Classes 6 to 8, although some topics are also covered in Classes 9 to 12.In the Class 6 English textbook, a chapter called ‘A Forgotten Wish’ explains how married women too can take care of their parents, and that they are not a “burden or a stranger”. In it, Khwahish, a married woman, is keen to care for her “bebe” (mother), although the latter believes that married women belong in their husbands’ homes. That changes when bebe falls ill, and her son cannot travel back from abroad.It’s Khwahish who takes over — she’s the one who gets her mother’s eye surgery done, and she’s the one who cares for her.A chapter from the Class 8 English book helps students understand the opportunities that some married women lose because of rigid social norms. The chapter, called ‘Smashing the Glass Ceiling’, tells the story of Paramjeet, the daughter of a house help, and Geet, at whose house Paramjeet’s mother worked. By the time they meet again after 25 years, their lives have taken diametrically opposite courses: Geet, a well-qualified woman with a master’s degree, is a homemaker whose family doesn’t approve of her working, while the less-educated Paramjeet has her own computer business and is now a confident woman.Story continues below this adThe story, which ends with Geet seeking work from Paramjeet, sets the tone right at the outset.“People generally think women can’t have their own businesses, but excellence and talent are not based on gender. Even if a girl is highly educated, she is only expected to take care of family,” the chapter says. “They have to work harder to prove their worth.”Sunita Prabhakar of the Punjab Education Department explains why lessons like this are important, especially in government schools.“Since more of the government school children come from underprivileged backgrounds, their career choices are also narrow and biased. Girls think that at best, they can be teachers or nurses. We are trying to change this,” says Prabhakar.Story continues below this adAmong the most significant changes in the textbooks is how students are being taught to view history — and the women in it. In particular, the books have highlighted the roles of Razia Sultan, the Sultan of the Delhi Sultanate from 1236 until her deposition in 1240, and Nur Jahan, the chief consort of Mughal emperor Jahangir and widely considered the real power behind the Mughal throne.Nur Jahan wasn’t just Jahangir’s “wife”, and Razia Sultana was not just Sultan Shams ud-Din Iltutmish’s “daughter”, the chapters say.“What was the cause of Razia Sultana’s murder?” an activity-based question at the end of a chapter on Razia — Delhi’s first and only female Muslim ruler — asks. “If Razia existed today, what difficulties would she have faced on her path to becoming the first female ruler of Delhi? What fixed ideas about women did she break during those times?”The chapter answers the question too: “She was killed because men did not want to obey and follow a woman leader. The Army Generals did not want to spend their life under a woman. Razia Sultana was the first female Muslim ruler. She trained in military warfare since childhood, wore clothes that didn’t show her gender and discarded the veil, which shocked the conservative society… People believe that men are natural leaders and women have to work much harder to get into governance and politics. Historically, women have faced many such challenges.”Story continues below this adLikewise, the chapter on Nur Jahan explains how she was “the most inspiring woman in the Mughal era who defied traditional norms by openly ruling alongside her husband”.“She took keen interest in the administration of his kingdom. Jahangir took her advice on all issues. In act after act — hunting, issuing orders and coins, designing buildings — she ensured her name was carved in public memory and in history. She got her husband released after he was captured. She broke the notion of men being better strategists than women… She was the real power behind Jahangir’s rule. Society often views women as only objects of beauty and duty, but she defied it.”Rashmi Dwivedi, the state head for the project from the NGO Breakthrough, believes that gender sensitivity is meant for both girls and boys.“We are working on changing children’s aspirations. If a woman gets married, parents think it is against societal norms for them to stay at her place. Some women are still not allowed to work after marriage. We are saying all this through the curriculum. The focus now is not on whose daughter or wife these great women [like Nur Jahan and Razia Sultan] were, but on the identities that they scripted,” she says.