Save Daughter , Educate the Daughter
Over decades, the power of education in empowering and transforming communities has been an enduring insight. However, the Indian girl child, considered below her male counterparts, is deprived of this gift, furthering the false belief that girls are not worthy of literacy. The educated women of today will ensure that both their sons and daughters receive education, and other opportunities equally, preventing circumstances that lead to child exploitation. With the considerable amount of girl child illiteracy, quality education needs to be fought for. This is why girl child education is critical for India, and must become a mission that civil society, volunteers, and the common public must unite to fight for.
Where the gender gap in education comes from?
The gender gap has arisen from rural India assuming that girls must be trained for their future role as homemakers – and nothing else. It has resulted from regressive patriarchal views that men alone are capable of earning and struggling for their income, and women must only be seen as household workers and family caretakers. By compromising access to women’s education and other educational opportunities, the girl child has been held back, until she is pushed below the male child’s educational status. It then becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy – villagers can ‘naturally’ assume that girls are not capable of literacy, simply because they have not been given these opportunities.
Challenges in Providing Girl Child Education
- Civic bodies support for Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao Constant civic body support must be engaged in addressing issues like female foeticide, education, and welfare services for females
- Regressive mindsets compromising the safety of NGO workers India's poorer communities are not used to see women officials, ogle and make unwanted advances.
- Obsession with marriage Indian society, across cities and villages, are obsessed with getting girls married as soon a possibly, preferably to people in their own castes and sects. A woman's role is therefore not being a career-oriented person, but being a housewife.
