Dr. Vishiesh Verma
Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru, the First Prime Minister of India, when he was informed that he had a baby girl, he like all Indian fathers, was slightly crest-fallen, but only for a minute. He quickly rose to the occasion, turned around, and exclaimed, “A tigress is born. I shall bring her up like a tigress.” Indeed, a tigress she became! If you choose to bring up your daughter like a donkey destined to bear the burden of outdated social conventions, she will grow up to be one!
Malala Yousafzai, came to public eye in 2012 when she was shot by the Taliban for her unrelenting pursuit for girls education in Pakistan. Later on she was operated and survived-turned-icon of Taliban resistance and was nominated for Noble Peace Prize for the year 2013. She has since become an internationally recognized symbol of opposition to Taliban’s drive to deny education to women and against religious extremism in a country where women’s rights are often flouted. Malala Yousfzai a child activist, says about the children deprived of education that “Fifty seven million children across the world don’t want an iphone, xbox or chocolates. Let us pick up our books and our pens. They are our most powerful weapons. One child, one teacher, one book and one pen can change the world”. Ziauddin Yousafzai, father of Malala has made an emotional appeal to Pakistani parents to give proper education to their daughters and to treat them in the same way as they treat their sons. Stressing the role of education in countries caught up in sectarian conflicts such as Pakistan, Mr Yousafzai said, “Education is powerful in conflict zones where you have to speak the truth about the situation, and also in peaceful societies where you have a role to play for the promotion and benefit of those societies.” There are no two opinions that it is girl education which can change the world.
In January 2014, a ten year old girl Spozhmai of Afghanistan was dressed up with explosive filled suicide vest by her brother, a prominent Taliban commander, to blow up Police Checkpost, when spotted by the Police she told the BBC’s Newsday Programme her story, “I was treated as if I was a slave of my family and not allowed to read and write” she refused to go back to her home rather kill herself. These days’ daughters have to prove their worth to win the parents good will. There is an example of an ‘unwelcome Indian daughter who became family pride’ (December 2013), of course education helped her. Ram Bateri of Punjab, who was declared the best raider during the kabaddi world cup held in Punjab recently, is full of courage, enthusiasm and positivity towards life. To achieve it she had to fight against all odds, her family and friends. Now she has proved that girls are ahead of boys, especially to such sections of society who think that girls are unwanted. She bravely stood up and struggled hard to reach her destiny alone with only trust in God. The dismal sex ratio (census 2011 age group 0-6 years) reveal there are 914 girls for 1000 boys in the country is lowest since independence, is a proof enough that daughters remain unwanted in Indian social setup. In this context reference of Jammu and Kashmir State will not be out of place. In 1994-96 the state was hailed by United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) as a place where no female foeticide took place had suddenly become averse to fair sex and census 2011 reported there were 859 girls for 1000 boys. In a bid to balance male female sex ratio, Ministry of Human Resource Development has come up with seemingly generous schemes to encourage education of girls. Education is free for girls throughout the country up to senior secondary level, in certain states like Haryana, Gujarat; it is free up to graduation level. In J&K State, it is free up to post graduation level but poverty, backwardness, caste; region comes in the way of girls to get education.
The literacy rate among girls which was 8.86% in 1951 reached 65.86% in 2011. It is too slow a progress. Over 50% of female population of the country may be considered illiterate and over two third of them live in rural areas. Girls form more than half the illiterate children in the age group of 5-9 years in India. Although girls enrolment at various levels of school education has improved appreciably but in rural, backward areas they are yet to enter school. Take the example of J&K state literacy rate of women has jumped from 13% to 65% (2011 census) but about 16000 girls in the age group 6-14 years never attended school in their lives.
There is perhaps no greater hindrance to the path of progress than social prejudice. The girl child in india is still, in many cases born into a dismal life of prejudices. Educating the girl child and empowering her remains the litmus test for our nation in its commitment to equality of education. The 2007 ‘Education For All’ report published by UNESCO observed that a child whose mother is illiterate is twice as likely to be out of school as one whose mother is educated.
Contrary to urban beliefs crimes against girls in rural India, especially those from weaker sections are on a rise. It makes the parents to discourage their daughters for joining to school. Mohan Bhagwat, Head of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) had argued that rape hardly takes place in rural India. The reality however is very different. A recent news report quoting statistics from court data, collected by an associate professor of Delhi’s National Law University, proved that 75% of India’s rape convictions were for crimes that took place in rural areas. Here is an example of mysterious murder of three sisters aged 6, 8 and 10 in Murmndi village in Maharashtra’s Bhandara district who went missing from school. On Feb 14, 2013 an impoverished Dalit widow waited for her 3 daughters arrival from school up to 6pm in the evening and then sent her father-in-law to lodge a complaint at a near Police station. The police was reluctant to act. On 16th Feb bodies of girls were found in a well just 3 minutes away from national highway 6. Girls were raped before being murdered. The tragic loser was none other than the widow mother of the victims, who said, “After I lost my husband a few years ago, my daughters were my source of strength. All I want today is justice; the perpetrators must be given harshest punishment”. It sends a message to village people ‘Daughters are safe only in the homes’.
The importance of Girls Education has been well explained in the Indian proverb, ‘If you are planning for a year, plant coconut tree, if planning for five years, plant rice but if you are planning for future, educate your girl child’. Besides all other efforts, our girls primary schools in the villages need to be given a face lift. A spacious neat clean school building with garden and playground where girls struggle to get entry is upper most necessity. Besides minimum two teachers, well educated, soft spoken having required knowledge of all the school subjects be appointed. Primary school students worship their teachers, their language, actions and behavior must get imprinted on the minds of students. In such schools girls would love to get admitted and parents would make all efforts to get their daughters to complete education. This is not asking for a moon but a necessity. The primary schools for girls are to be as important as IITs for the youth.
(The writer is a former reader Coordinator of University of Jammu.)
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel