Women and Education

What’s the big deal about women and their education? In the present century, we find it strange to believe that women or for that matter young girls still do not have right to education! Unbelievable as it sounds, there are ways in which the government has come out with schemes for Primary Education, Mid-day meals and Right to Education (RTE) act to get the girls into classrooms. Yet, the social settings and situations are yet to free women.

As per latest statistics, the literacy rate for women in India is 65.79 per cent against 82.37 per cent for men – resulting in a net literacy rate for the country at 74.37 per cent. Consequently, the contribution of women to work-force is pathetic. According to World Bank statistics, there is only one woman for three men in the Indian labour force, which is better than only nine countries in the world. The vast gender divide extends to factors beyond these statistics.

(Source: Economic Times)

Added to this the statistics reveal the dismal gap between states – states like Kerala paint a rosy picture with 92.07% female literacy, relatively backward states such as Bihar with 51.5 % female literacy rate highlight the importance of sustained efforts needed in favour of women’s education in India. Within this statistics, further details open a glimpse of the probable reasons. It is noted that adolescent females are the first to drop out of school. According to statistics, around 63.5% female students quit school during adolescence. One of the reasons for this is lack of facilities in schools, especially toilets. Concern over the safety of girls, largely attributed to the idea of family honour, goes hand in hand, thereby the decision of making the girls work at home rather than study becomes the norm.

How can we all work to reduce this? Remember the movie “Toilet”? It wasn’t far from reality. It is the first step towards ensuring that all schools irrespective of whether in rural or semi-urban locations, must provide for better toilet facilities and personal hygiene and safety programs by women educators need to be boosted. When families feel that girls won’t be compromised then they won’t have to think of honor in terms of attending school. That will raise the dropout rate of the adolescent girls.

The next move would be towards awareness that girls can also contribute to the income if they learn and then earn. Giving examples of women who balance home and work can be taken up to pursue the importance of academics and life. Regional examples of women of excellence boosts this in a better way.  Talking of Madhya Pradesh, Bhakti Sharma is the youngest woman Sarpanch who can be a great inspiring example for girls and young women.

If the efforts are made to look into these two aspects, we can undoubtedly create a society whereby women too are educated and respected. Let’s pledge to educate all!