In the recently released Global Hunger Index 2020, India ranked 94 out of 107 countries, lying under the ‘serious’ hunger category. While poor implementation and failure in monitoring are held responsible for non-performing nutrition programs, the lack of maternal education is one of the crucial factors that make the situation worse.
Moreover, education plays an essential role in how society performs on different parameters. Girls’ education, in particular, enhances the living standards of the family and the entire community, in the long run.
Today, the government and the members of the community, in the form of societies and NGOs are tediously working towards expanding the outreach of education amongst girls. While the numbers of girls getting school education have improved relatively, most of them still have to face struggles to continue their school education, especially in rural India and amongst the low-income group families.
Gender Roles And Girls’ Education
The shackles of patriarchy are so strong that even after 70 years since the enforcement of one of the most advanced legal documents of the time — the Constitution of India, we have been unable to break them fully.
Even though the Constitution envisioned social justice to all Indians, our girls still have to face discrimination on grounds of them being “extrinsic money” or paraya dhan a concept that materialises women, making them a commodity that is to be transacted. Consequently, most of the parents lying in the low-income group category are reluctant to invest in their daughters’ education.
Chanchal who lives in a village in Aligarh district of western Uttar Pradesh and attends a nearby government secondary school, says that she is lucky that her parents are allowing her to go to school. “We are not expected to excel at studies but should know how to perform household routines so that when we will get married and get to our homes we will be able to handle all the work singlehandedly. It would make our in-laws happy. We won’t give them any opportunity to complain,” says Chanchal.
While having a conversation with several village girls, I realised that most of them were raised considering their paternal home as a temporary or foster home, where they must get trained for their permanent home — their in-laws’ place.
Moreover, for many people, investing in their daughters’ education is considered a wastage of money; they would rather choose to save up for their marriage. “More money for dowry will land her getting married to a well earning husband, rather than her being more educated,” says the father of a school going girl who requested to remain anonymous.
COVID-19 And Patriarchal Interferences
In my recent association with an educational society in western Uttar Pradesh that provides free education to girls, I found out that the school has provided tabs and data for free so that they can have access to online classes, while schools are shut amidst the pandemic.
Interestingly, patriarchal interferences started playing disruptive roles in the digital education of the girls as they already do, even in the absence of a pandemic. A considerable number of girl students started complaining about the devices being given to their brothers. They were told that the boys were the ones suffering from disruptions in education, and the girls didn’t need them.
Therefore, the school had to ensure that such technical equipment and support were not taken away from their students just because they are girls.
Second Largest Economy? At What Cost?
The world is about to enter the fourth revolution led by automation. India is projected to have the second-largest GDP overtaking the USA by 2050. However, it is all futile if our girls still need to struggle to receive basic education. Even after 70 years since the day when the Constitution of India was enacted, we are not able to ensure social, economic, and political justice to half of our population.
If we are striving to become a giant economy across the world at the cost of the majority of people sleeping hungry every day, leading to the wasting of millions of children in India, we can continue the way we are going.
But, if we choose to educate every girl, without even one of them struggling to access quality education, we will not only become the biggest global economic power but also a place where no one remains hungry, no child is stunted, and every individual has equal access to opportunities and a healthy environment to prosper.
Thus, by making education to every girl possible, within a few decades, we can make India a place where every human can live a life with dignity and not merely survive.
*The arguments and claims in this article are based on empirical experiences that I had visiting some areas in western Uttar Pradesh. Patriarchy exists in some form or the other in almost every part of India. However, the extent to which it is exerted on the people can vary geographically, depending on caste, religion, class, etc., in the area in context.