Home Environment Related Causes of Educational Backwardness of Muslim Women in West Bengal

Muslim women comprising about 12.16% of the state population and 48.24% to the total Muslim population in West Bengal can never be ignored. But, most of them remain educationally, socially, politically and culturally backward. The identified home environment related causes such as greater importance on marriage of Muslim girls than their education in Muslim families, spending more time in household work in study time, greater importance on the education of Muslim boys than that of Muslim girls, not availability of separate room for study for Muslim girls, not getting help in study from other family members, not providing of special assistance from Muslim families, unavailability of suitable groom for higher educated Muslim women for their marriage, opposition of higher education from Muslim families, disobedience of family rules and regulations by educated Muslim women and not suitable home atmosphere played a major role for educational backwardness of Muslim women in West Bengal. A survey has been carried out to find out the opinions of Muslim women towards these home environment related causes of educational backwardness of Muslim women in West Bengal. The paper also presents the various ways for removing home environment related barriers for improvement of Muslim women education in West Bengal.