Kerala's state government has introduced gender-neutral textbooks, featuring pictorial depictions of family members engaged in cooking and other household tasks regardless of their gender. The aim is to instill gender equality in children's minds, challenging traditional gender roles and emphasizing shared responsibilities within households.
In a Malayalam medium textbook for Class 3, a father grating coconut and a mother cooking dishes are depicted, while in an English textbook, the father is seen cooking snacks for his daughter. State schools reopened after a 2-month long summer vacation with innovative kitchen chores textbooks featuring pictorial representations of family members, drawing attention from the students and teachers. It came to the attention of other people after General Education Minister V Sivankutty shared a page from one on his social media post.
Pavithra Krishna, a lower primary student at a government school in Vithura, found the new Malayalam textbook's pictures amusing. She mentioned, "I was turning the pages of the new book and was surprised to see the pictures of a father scraping coconut in the kitchen. I showed this to my father and asked why he doesn't do this at home." Additionally, Sindhu, a teacher at a state-run school believes that new textbooks will promote a positive message about the collective responsibility of both fathers and mothers for household tasks. She stated, "This is very positive. Knowingly or unknowingly, there is a general impression in our society that cooking and housework are is a general impression in our society that cooking and housework are the sole responsibilities of women. Children are also growing with this sense of feeling because that is what they see in their home."
