Group Discussion Contest-157

[HELP]

In what way can women be given priority in education ? - comment

[RisingSun]

India has the largest population of non-school-going working girls.
India’s constitution guarantees free primary school education for both boys and girls up to age 14. This goal has been repeatedly reconfirmed, but primary education in India is not universal. Overall, the literacy rate for women is 39 percent versus 64 percent for men. The rate for women in the four large northern states — Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh — is lower than the national average: it was 25 percent in 1991. Attendance rates from the 1981 census suggest that no more than 1/3 of all girls (and a lower proportion of rural girls) aged 5-14 are attending school.
Although substantial progress has been achieved since India won its independence in 1947, when less than 8 percent of females were literate, the gains have not been rapid enough to keep pace with population growth: there were 16 million more illiterate females in 1991 than in 1981.
Sonalde Desai in Gender Inequalities and Demographic Behavior asserts that "parents’ reluctance to educate daughters has its roots in the situation of women. Parents have several incentives for not educating their daughters. Foremost is the view that education of girls brings no returns to parents and that their future roles, being mainly reproductive and perhaps including agricultural labor, require no formal education. As more and more boys are engaged in education, there is a growing reliance on the labor of girls. Girls are increasingly replacing their brothers on the farm while carrying on their usual responsibilities in housework. A large proportion of the roughly 40 million "nonworking" girls who are not in school are kept at home because of responsibilities in housework."
The role of parents is to deliver a chaste daughter to her husband’s family. Sonalde Desai goes on to point out that "another disincentive for sending daughters to school is a concern for the protection of their virginity. When schools are located at a distance, when teachers are male, and when girls are expected to study along with boys, parents are often unwilling to expose their daughters to the potential assault on their virginity."
There is little response to counter these obstacles: school hours remain inflexible to the labor demands of girls; many villages do not have a school; and fewer than 1/3 of India’s primary and middle-school teachers are women.
According to Mapping Progress, "educational funds were cut by 801.3 million rupees in the 1991-92 budget. Funds for the mass literacy movement, in which women participate enthusiastically, have been reduced by 5 percent from the previous year. Budgetary provisions for non-formal education have been cut by 17 percent, leading to closure of many night schools and adult education programs in which working-class women participate. Reduction in government expenditures on higher education and encouragement to private colleges will reduce women’s opportunities for higher education since privatization in education promotes only male-dominated professional and technical courses, as they are lucrative."

[RisingSun]

Useful link :

http://www.education.nic.in/adledu.asp

[vjsreevs]

In many fmlies a girl child has to settle for far less in terms of investing in her edu ...
Encouraging women's edu is not abt creating quotas or offering financial assistancies (though they may help) ...
Its abt changing attitudes & mindsets ...

[luckytelukunta]

hi all,
well firstly i thank rising sun for the information abt the stats of literacy rate, but the present topic of discussion is in which way can we increase the literacy rate of woman, well it can be done in many a ways, firstly we have conduct seminars in rural areas the importance and benefits of education, how it can help their female child in the future to achieve her dreams and at the same time govt should produce funds for the people who cannot afford for their children's education, i.e we have to change the mindset of the parents, and also give quotas to those kind of downtrodden people, i mean like reservation should not be according to castes division but rather on the financial position, so like propaganding, educating, seminars... we can improve women literacy rate especially in india where it is less than 45%, and even eduacte those parents who r saving money for the dowry as such dowry is illegal and educate them to atleast spend that money for their beautiful future of their girl/girls.