The State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) has introduced gender friendly lessons in its text books for Class I, VI and VII. Hoping to contain the girl child dropout rate in Class VII and removing the stereotypes from textbooks, SCERT has introduced lessons on gender equality. These include images showing a man helping his wife in the kitchen and in another picture, helping his young daughter get ready for school. In another text , the story of a girl child studying hard to eventually take up a job, are being told through illustrations in the form of a 'Burra Katha' (local folk tale). Sketches of bright-eyed young girls walking into junior colleges or sharing the stage with boys for a performance are the Andhra Pradesh government's first baby steps towards gender sensitive education. The story in the first language textbook of Class VII, 'Sita Istalalu', ends with the girl child enrolling into college and then becoming an officer, complete with a personal assistant as shown in the image. In another story, 'Meti Balika', a physically challenged girl child is shown performing on stage to the cheers of her classmates. "There is no gender bias in our textbooks anymore. In social studies we have introduced a chapter on gender disparities. These issues have been addressed in our lessons in all our books," says B Seshu Kumari, director, SCERT. This is the first time since the state of Andhra Pradesh was formed that a state curriculum is being developed locally. The state until 2008 was following the national curriculum that was in place, which too had remained unchanged since 1992-93.