At the outset, why should India not employ its own resources armed with the latest information technology methods , if required , to collect data in respect of certain critical issues and not be led by or have to give credence to what some international organisations report which have a sort of a monopolistic right . We do not mean that such reports should altogether be ignored but had there been a similar indigenously prepared information already at hand , a comparison in respect of a given period could have cleared the mist of genuineness of such reports. However, having said that, the dropout rate of girls in India had ”reached alarming levels” in the view of UNICEF report equally needs to be peeped deep into and properly analysed.
While year by year, there is continuous growth in the levels of girls taking to schools and education in India , at least up to High School levels, at the same time , increased representation of women in Government services and in PSUs run by the GOI and various states is on the rise indicative of rolling out of more women even from colleges and other educational institutions. Not only that, in technical, professional and vocational institutions there is fairly good number of women studying and coming out fully trained which too is on the increase on yearly basis.
However, the dreaded pandemic of COVID -19, with its three waves on back to back basis, wrecked the entire education system as most of the schools had to be closed for safety measures . In rural and semi urban areas, the position appeared to have worsened because the substitute on-line mode could not be universally applied for teaching and learning due to absence of the required infrastructure. That has agreeably resulted in dropouts especially of girls which , however, is going down again as schools have already opened across the country. However, district wise on the ground assessment across the country, must be made by the Government in this respect post COVID scenario and remedial steps initiated as part of a larger task of repairing the damages caused by the pandemic. “Beti Bachao , Beti Padao ” should , therefore, not remain a mere slogan but a programme of serious implementation.
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