Christian missionaries and their role in educational development of women in Orissa

Education plays a vital role in determining the development of human personality. It modernizes of one's behaviour. Though women are the integral part of society and an inseparable axis of man – woman pole they have been deprived of education for long period of time. They were not allowed to attend educational institutions due to conservativeness of the parents and the prevailing of unfavourable social conditions. So, they remained grossly illiterate and backward. It was the missionaries who for the first time took keen interest to literate them and established a number of schools, orphanages, Girls’ hostels and training schools for their educational development. They even, introduced Zenana system for high caste Hindu and Muslim women and disseminated education to them. The objective of missionary teaching was to make them sensible, moral, industrious and pious so that they would make good housewives for the native Christians. The missionaries were the pioneer of female education in Orissa. After that, the government followed the foot prints of missionaries and took a number of steps for the development of women education in Orissa. Introduction of female education was one of the outstanding contributions of missionaries to the neglected section of the society.