I have always stood by a popular ideology which says that”your gender shouldn’t determine whether you get an education or not”.
Bu this lockdown has lately proved to be a big contradiction to the above notion. COVID-19 undoubtedly dismantled many sections of the society but the most severely hit were the girls and their mental, physical and emotional cohesion.
This lockdown dragged people to the virtual model of learning thereby raising the requirement of internet connectivity for many people, and this turned out to be a blunt challenge to the poor sections of the society wherein the worst affected were the girls.
Since parents had to cut down on a lot of necessities owing to financial setbacks, they chose to instead continue with their sons’ education and considered it futile to spend on their girls’ learning. Therefore, this deeply engraved mentality to invest in boys’ education than on girls’ is one of the main determinants of affected educational profusion among girls.
Moreover, whenever it comes to imparting quality education to girls, unreceptive people often consider it impractical to do so and during the lockdown, many girls were appointed as caregivers in their respective houses which again questions the statistics of education of girls during the lockdown.
“Patriarchal burden drove many girls out of school and attached with them the heavy load of marriage and the responsibilities that come with it.”
Lockdown also disturbed the mental well being of people, more specifically girls, who had to bear the burden of baseless limits set either by their parents or by society because women can never be their masters. They are born to be tamed (pun intended).
Giving up on education, adopting to household chores and submitting to family and societal pressures to get married contributed to their mental upheaval on a big scale.
These things, although not a new inclusion to their respective lives, they intensified in the lockdown period.
What Is The Way Forward?
- Increased employment opportunities.
- Special policies to ensure girls’ education.
- Steps to be taken to stop evil and illegal practices against girls.
These changes are vital to bringing the situation to normal and our policymakers need to buckle up in no time.