Barriers to Girls' Education

We should not be too quick to attribute low literacy among girls to poverty alone. A number of other factors are just as responsible. Wahidul Hasan Khan lists some of these.

June 2004 - The conventional view of illiteracy is that it is closely linked to poverty. While that is certainly true, there are numerous other factors responsible for the low levels of literacy, especially among females, and it is only by understanding the impact of these other factors that significant - and meaningul - increases in illiteracy can be achieved. In this article, I identify a number of these other conditions that lead to illiteracy.

• Although it is heartening to note that the growth in female literacy has been higher at 14.87 percent than males at 11.72 percent during this decade, it still trails male literacy by more than 21 percentage points.
• Inadequate School Facilities: Many states do not have enough classrooms to accommodate all school-age children. And the classrooms that are available often lack basic necessities such as sanitary facilities and water. The Public Report On Basic Education (PROBE) reports on a 1996 survey of 1221 primary school in 188 randomly selected villages in Bihar, M.P., Rajasthan and U.P.
      o  44 % of schools does not have a playground.
      o  54 % of schools did not have drinking water.
      o  72 % of schools did not have a library.
      o  84 % of schools did not have a toilet.
      o  12 % of schools had a single teacher.
  
• Lack Of qualified female teachers: Girls are more likely to attend schools if they have female teachers. Girls are more comfortable and more vocal with lady teachers, thus actively focusing and participating in the learning process. Also, parents - especially in rural areas - are hesitant to send their girls to schools that have only male teachers. Nearly all committees and commissions that have looked into illiteracy have recommended increased recruitment of women teachers.
• Lack of transport facilities: Particularly in rural areas, transportation is needed for girls to attend middle and secondary schools, which are often far away from their homes. Primary education is often accessible much closer, but secondary education facilities assume that children will drop out as they age, and therefore fewer schools are established to cater to older children. Necessarily, therefore, these schools tend to be inaccessibly far away from many school-age girls. This perverse assumption must be discarded, and equal numbers of schools at all levels must be established.
• Lack of hostel facilities for girls: Many girls desirous of pursuing education above middle level, facilities for which are available away from their homes, cannot avail themselves of these facilities due to lack of hostel arrangements. Girls, particularly those belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes would continue their education at middle and above levels if they could find free or inexpensive residential facilities nearer the educational institution.
• Fear of sexual harassment: Parents often complain about insecurity for girls attending schools. Instances of abduction, rape and molestation of girls dampen the enthusiasm of parents and girl students in pursuing education beyond a certain age; thereafter they remain bound to thier homes.
• Parents are hesitant to send their girls to schools that have only male teachers. Nearly all committees and commissions that have looked into illiteracy have recommended increased recruitment of women teachers.
• Fixed schooling hours: Fixed schooling hours do not suit girls in rural areas, as they are needed for domestic work at home or in farms and fields during these hours. This is one of the causes of lower participation rates of girls in education. The enrolment rates of girls and their retention can be improved if educational facilities are made available to girls during periods suitable to them when they are free from domestic chores. Flexible school timings have been tried in Rajasthan through the Shiksha Karmi Project and Lok Jumbish, and the results are encouraging.

These factors combine to produce unattractive environments in which girls must run the gauntlet of difficulties to remain in school, as a result of which their learning is severely compromised even if they do remain. A discriminatory attitude builds up among teachers and the greater society that witnesses girls dropping out in large numbers. Understanding the structural, budgetary, and security failures behind public education for girls can help us limit the debilitating effects of poverty - which is real - and greatly increase the number of children whose learning years are spent where they belong.

Wahidul Hasan Khan
June 2004

Wahidul Hasan Khan is a project consultant specialising in gender issues at the Indira Gandhi National Open University in New Delhi.

A Patriarchal Society

A patriarchal Indian society, Some social and religious traditions that give the son primary status in the family; And sadly, women themselves, appear to be their own worst enemies: in surveys it has been noted that only 3% of childless women express a specific desire for a daughter but one in every three women say they would want their first child to be a boy.

Our national bias has shown up in many ways; Rampant illegal child marriages (In 2001, more than 5 million girls, were married or widowed or separated/divorced), Sexual abuse and trafficking of girl children (almost 50 % of them are below 12), and Illiteracy (About 50% of the girls drop-out of school before the age of 12)

* data compiled from the 2001 census and other government sources

The Real Picture

Today's urban, globalised, middle class India may occasionally lionize a Sunita Williams, or revere Naina Lal Kidwai as a role model. But in both urban hubs and rural hamlets, discrimination and gender bias against the girl child persists, in large and small ways.

The tilt of the child sex ratio, with 927 girls to 1000 boys, has been widely documented. Even among girls who survive birth, 10.5% die before they turn five, due to malnutrition and medical neglect. 24% of them are not enrolled even in primary school. Of those who are, 60% are likely to be pulled out before they reach secondary school, and put to work.

The truly tragic part is that all of these violations - malnutrition, medical neglect, sexual abuse and gender discrimination in attitudes – take place within the four walls of the parental home. The very place that is supposed to nurture the child, protect her, help her develop and take her place as a proud, productive member of society.

* data compiled from the 2001 census and other government sources

Change, We Need To

Fortunately, the laws of the land and the administration in some states are trying to reverse the situation, but that is not enough. True repair of the situation will begin when each of us make a beginning in our own homes. Let's accept that in many insidious ways, even the most liberal among us harbours biases about the girl child. And it is not often the man alone that holds the bias.

The parent who discourages his or her daughter from football, or who doesn't worry about her grades because she will eventually 'settle down', would hate to be classed among those who practice female foeticide.

The fact is that most of us discriminate against girl children, it is only the nature and extent of discrimination that varies. As girls, most of us have given into the notions that have killed our spirits. That there are very few Sunita Williams, Naina Lal Kidwai’s or Kiran Bedi’s or Anjum Chopra’s is a reality we must change, because every girl is an individual, independent of her role as a daughter, mother or sister, with her own unique abilities, choices and future.