Education is recognized as one of the critical elements for national development efforts as it is a powerful tool to build a knowledge-based society for the 21st century. The awareness and commitment for attaining gender equality can be realized as being one of the most important development goals of India. Statistics indicate that the scenario of gender equality in education has made progress by leaps and bounds; however, a camouflaged form of gender inequality in the curriculum has gone unaccounted for. The current paper documents the extent of gender inequality in the curriculum and in the textbooks adopted by the schools in Bhopal. The study is limited to analyzing the curriculum/ textbooks of Hindi and English languages for Classes I - X through content analysis. The paper also makes an effort to understand the opinion of various stakeholders regarding the curriculum being "Gender Neutral" or "Gender Sensitive". The research will add value towards building literature related to the extent of gender differences in the curriculum. The study can provide the policymakers with relevant information to build a gender-neutral curriculum for schools so as to improve access to education along with equity and excellence in education. The study will provide literature for adoption of strategies for enhancing the relevance of education through curriculum reforms.

1. American Association of University Women (1995). How Schools Shortchange Girls : The AAUW Report : A Study of Major Findings on Girls and Education. New York: Marlowe & Company, 75-79.
2. Best, R. (1989). We've all got scars: What boys and girls learn in elementary school. Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 172-178.
3. Calvanese, M. M. (2007). Investigating Gender Stereotypes in Elementary Education. Journal of Undergraduate Psychological Research, 2 (12), 11-18.
4. Central Statistical Organization, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government of India (2011). Millenium development goals India country report. 46-55, Retrieved from <a href=http://www.undp.org/content/dam/india/docs/mdg_india_2011.pdf target="_blank">http://www.undp.org/content/dam/india/docs/mdg_india_2011.pdf</a>
5. Cornwall, A. (2003). Whose voices? Whose choices? Reflections on gender and participatory development. World Development, 31 (8), 1325-42, DOI: 10.1016/S0305-750X (03)00086-X.
6. Frazier, N., & Sadker, M. (1973). Sexism in school and society. New York : Harper & Row, 120-139.
7. Hall, R.M., & Sandler, B.R. (1982). The classroom climate: A chilly one for women? Association of American Colleges , 4-22.
8. Rath, A. K. (2008). Girls Education in India: Achievements since Independence. Ministry of Human Resource Development, Department of School Education & Literacy. Retrieved from <a href=http://ssa.nic.in/news/girls-education-in-india-achievements-since-independence-press-release-wednesday-january,23,2008 target="_blank">http://ssa.nic.in/news/girls-education-in-india-achievements-since-independence-press-release-wednesday-january,23,2008</a>
9. Sadker, M., & Sadker, D.M. (1994). Failing at fairness: How our schools cheat girls. New York : Charles Scribner's Sons, 120-125.
10. Sadker, M., & Sadker, D.M. (1982). Sex equity handbook for schools, New York : Longman, 107-112.
11. Sharma, S., & Mukherjee, S. (2013, March 8). India Inc gets more Women in top management. The Times of India , Retrieved from <a href=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/ target="_blank">http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/</a>
12. World Education Forum (2002). Dakar Framework for Action 2000. UNESCO, Retrieved from <a href=http://www.unesco.org/education/wef/en-conf/dakframeng.shtm target="_blank">http://www.unesco.org/education/wef/en-conf/dakframeng.shtm</a>