New NCW chief Parthasarathy told UNI the idea behind the programme was to free young minds from ``psychological partitioning''.

The commission will approach Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit to seek her help for a pilot programme in government schools in the Capital to empower girls and sensitise boys, she said.

Parthasarathy said text books, nursery rhymes and other school curricula still reinforced stereotypes about girls and boys, creating the impression that, for instance, science is for boys while the humanities are for girls, that the outdoors are for men while women are meant to stay indoors.

``The early school years form the psychological bedrock on which a child's values and attitudes are based, and later show up in actions and behaviour patterns. If patriarchal patterns are formed at an early stage in both girls and boys, they continuelife-long,'' she added. Describing women's groups as the ``limbs of the commission'', Parthasarathi said she would like them to be actively involved in the NCW's gender sensitisation project in schools.Citing the lack of political will as the major hurdle to women's emancipation, Parthasarathi said the ruckus over the Women's Reservation Bill reflected the entrenched resistance in the political class to women's empowerment.

``By and large, I think women will have to depend on their own resources to fight this battle,'' she added.