Girl Child Education

While scrutinizing the statistics of the involvement of women, particularly girl child in sectors of education, what materialize is the precarious condition of their intellectual development. This has been one of the most overlooked state of affairs pertaining to societies governed by the sense of patriarchy and poverty. If we turn the pages of history, women had always been a subject of marginalisation and subjugation and their voices were neglected. Even when we look into the history of literature, the number of women authors as compared to their male counterpart is quite less. Lack of proper formal education and inferiority complex created by stereotypes made them subject. The girl child and women in general internalize these ideas and believe themselves inferior to men.

           The dominant factor responsible for this condition of the girl child is the stereotypical

structuring of the society which don’t allow women to venture out of the domestic realm. From their young age they are made to adopt conventional gender roles. Moreover, a girl child also has to suffer because of various socio-economic factors like poverty and issues of distance to reach the educational institutions. Even if few girls join schools, most parents are not able to deal with the financial issues, and wish to create a gender bias preferring their sons over their girl child. Some are not able to bear the schooling costs and additional costs of books, uniforms and transportation. The most fundamental factors always remain the pressure of household chores like taking care of their siblings, helping their mothers in the kitchen and so on. In addition to these, cultural factors like marriage, religion; lack of proper maintenance of feminine facilities; inappropriate behaviour of male teachers are some of the significant impediment to the inadequacy of girl child education.

        Girl child education can be associated with the prosperity and development of a country. 

There are quite a number of benefits that comes with educating a girl child which would not only 

influence decision making because of the ability to think critically but also enforce positive impact on the country’s economy and individual functioning in daily life. Even though the expected turnout ofgirl child in educational institutions is still less, the government and NGO’s have been working on it since a long time. Indian government’s initiative of the ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’ is one such example. The seeds of women’s education in India sown by Raja Rammohan Roy established a strong hold of women on education across India. Since then government has been providing scholarships to the single girl child, in order to create a balance in an otherwise unbalanced country due to more number of boys as compared to girls.

            Girl child education enables the proper functioning of the ‘Right to Education’, a legal right which allows equal educational opportunities to all the children regardless of gender, caste or religion. The famous quote by William Butler Yeats, “Education is not the filling of a bucket, but the lighting of a fire”, plainly explains the importance of education in a person’s life, as well as in the growth of a society. It makes an individual aware of themselves and the inadequate practices of the world. This also enables intellectual growth and helps in breaking the bubbles of stereotypes. When it comes to educating a girl child, it contributes to reduction in child marriage, prevention from unwanted pregnancies, reduce class and income inequalities, empower women and much more. It becomes very critical of a nation that focuses on development of infrastructure and overlooks the importance of one of the most essential tool ‘education’. Children are considered the pillars of a nation and depriving them, especially women education may lead to only partial development or no development at all.

            Looking at the broader levels, we often tend to miss significant minute issues which possessthe capacity to change the scenario of a dominion. If a woman can run a family, she can run the world too. The skills that remain unnoticed needs to be put on a public domain and brought to light only then a society, a country or a nation can build itself. In carrying out the process of educating a girl child, great impediments have to be overcomed. But, investment in such an education will give the highest return investment available in the developing world.