The education of girl child, the future home maker and mother, has been badly neglected in India In the past few countries. It is very surprising to imagine what kind of future generation can be expected from such a society where the mother, ‘the main architect of family’ dwells in a state of ignorance.
The significance of educating girls began to be realized by society that if mothers were also educated, they could solve day-to-day health problems, provide nutrition through balance diet according to age and physical requirements.
Not only this, the educated mothers could very well fulfill the never-ending clothing needs of the family, proper upbringing of the children, understanding their psychology and also making the home beautiful and comfortable. All this could be well managed and could be better accomplished, if mother were well informed and better educated.
All these aspects of knowledge which are primarily concerned with strengthening and improving the family life are grouped together and a new discipline of Home Science has been created.
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It has evolved through various stages of growth and from time to time has been called as: Domestic Science, Domestic Arts, Domestic Economy, Household Science, Household Arts, Household Economy, Household Administration or Home Craft.
RAJANMAL DEVDAS, former president of Home Science Association of India has very rightly described this as, “Home Science deals with all aspects of the community and the nation. It integrates application of knowledge; synthesized from different sciences and humanities to resources, child development and consumer competencies.” (Devadas 1974)