I am not an educator, at least not formally. But more importantly, although my non-profit supports education for women and girls aggressively, including funding partner organisations in India, I haven’t had the first-hand, on-ground experience of educating children in India for a decade now.
I live and work primarily in the US. However, I grew up as the daughter of an activist-teacher in a higher secondary government school for girls, and my entire childhood was spent watching her fight to keep these girls, often the children of slum dwellers – many of who worked as house help while also trying to come to school – in school.
Everything she did, from changing the asbestos roof of the school building to getting a proper toilet built (and then a concrete building), to going into the bastis (slums) and pleading with the parents, had nothing to do with teaching. And yet, had everything to do with teaching. That’s what I know, that education can’t happen without commitment and ecosystem.
The COVID pandemic has been disastrous all round, but it would be foolish to not acknowledge that the scale of disaster differs for a certain segment: girls.
Even before the pandemic, the reality was that the participation of women in the workforce in India was low. Education rates were low. From infanticide to domestic violence, our charts topped, with some states regularly featuring in international reports for how they fared. The wage gap in India (like in many nations in the world), made women the ones earning less.
The systemic lack of investment in women’s education by families, especially in high-cost high-return professions, caused women to work more, for less, in less satisfying jobs. So, that combined with the global phenomena of believing in women’s supposed superior ability (and responsibility) when it comes to caregiving vs. that of men, when resources would go scarce, girls’ education and jobs of the women were the first to be put on the chopping block.
And then, COVID happened. Most families in India weren’t prepared for online and distance learning – nor did they have a way to provide many of the things that are assumed available. Quiet space. Any space. Internet. Computer. The list is not short. Some of the things I hear the western world grappling with – the mental state and personality of the children to be able to learn effectively from online instructions – wouldn’t even come into consideration when the basics are lacking here. So, it’s heartbreaking but not surprising that we heard of students dying by suicides. The cost of what is happening to them is more than what we will be able to afford.
First of all, India’s GDP growth over the next decade depends heavily on two things: women entering the workforce, and marginalized communities getting uplifted. According to a McKinsey study, India could increase its GDP by $770 billion by 2025 by getting more women to work and increasing gender equality. Also, the uplifting of marginalised communities depend significantly on women’s education and empowerment.
Like anything else, COVID’s fall out in the education sector is expectedly hitting the marginalised and the impoverished population the hardest. For the girls, it is furthermore exaggerated. In addition to the economic impact of this (for India today and India of the future), the social cost is high too.
Lack of access to education and schools increases both short and long-term risks to girls for gender-based violence, early marriage, lower age of consent, and trafficking. This is not a gap that can be reversed once COVID ends. This switch can’t be just flipped back. It will take years – years that India can’t, and shouldn’t have to, afford.
So, off-course we can rely on non-profits, but they are overwhelmed. So we need to do the simple things we can to slow the decline.
- First, know about this. Understand that this comes at a high long term cost for all of us.
- Second, spread the word. Talk to anyone you can find in your community – from your house helps to the people who come deliver goods. Make it a point that you explain to them in simple terms, their daughters should not be allowed to stop education. When they share their stories – hard decisions they have had to make – help out if you can. If you can’t, tell them to try and do whatever they can to keep the girls learning.
I have seen this even in affluent communities, for various reasons – none of which has to do with lack of infrastructure – students get drop years. Even reading grade-appropriate books on your own for those gap years, keeps the education going.
So, find out what levels the students were at and help out with books. Learning materials you might have or might be able to get.
- Third, ask them to talk to others. There is tremendous power in this. Yes, there can be a lot of push back, conditioning, and reasoning to plough through, but if you don’t give up on the education of girls – your conviction to the cause will get other convinced. They will share what they have heard.
- Lastly, make sure once schools start you check back. Make sure that the daughters of all the families you know, get back into learning.
These are very simple acts, and if done even in our immediate circles, can help. Of all the investments you can make for society during this pandemic, this one will yield the highest of returns.