The most vulnerable are destined to pay the heaviest price for their existence in what is an exploitative, bourgeois world exercising its unbridled hegemony over them. It is a jagged pill to swallow, but systemic discriminatory practices against the poor and marginalized classes not only exist but flourish in the circles protected by a network of caste, gender, and capitalist privileges.
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, restless in its transmission, has exposed India’s lack of consideration for the plight and needs of the weakest sections of society, including education of underprivileged girls.
In India, the remotest and weakest communities bore the brunt of the abrupt lockdown with millions of daily wage workers and migrants losing their livelihood. They were forced to set out on an abominable enterprise—walking hundreds of kilometres to reach their native towns, starved and badly-off. The vicious system watched their plight from a distance and swept its inability to provide timely and adequate relief under the carpet.
Since the nationwide school closures, it is a rather unpleasant union for millions of families. The poor are simply out of work, scraping along on what the government has provided in the name of covid relief. The continuity of schooling has been disrupted, and it is likely to send a lot of girls back in the tiresome drudgery of household chores, taking care of the family’s needs, and standing up to the pressure for marriage.
The detrimental impact of the pandemic and the lockdown on children’s mental health is the least of concerns for the government and the citizens alike. For the girls from poverty-stricken families neglected by the government and the media, one cannot possibly rule out the most dreadful consequence of the current predicament: being coerced into child labor and child trafficking.
The cases of child abuse during the lockdown are on the rise, and therefore we must understand that schools act as a safe place for children from toxic households. It should not be surprising if a lot of young girls drop out of schools in the post-covid world while their families set about to recover their losses at the cost of their children’s education.
The transition from classroom experience to virtual teaching is not as exciting and accommodating for every stakeholder who is expected to quickly assimilate the process. The majority of government schools in India are not equipped with the needful technology to impart online education—the teachers and the students are unaccustomed to online classes. The problem does not stop at the lack of experience and resources, we must also understand that the classrooms are not mere walls that surround the children where they are expected to perform their work with machine-like efficiency.
A physical classroom is a constellation of shared conversations and stories, games and altercations, care and friendships, and love and inspiration. Schools become more than just a place for learning for the poor children—they provide food and nutrition, psychological and in some cases, economic aid.
With the schools shut due to the covid-19 threat, the government announced that it would ensure home delivery of mid-day meals, or food security allowance as per entitlement of the child to the affected families if the former was not feasible. However, several states failed to comply with the announcement. For instance, the RTI documents revealed that the Uttarakhand government did not provide food to around 1.4 lakh children under the mid-day meal scheme during April and May.
The prolonged period of school closures has magnified the lack of resources among the poor to support their children’s online education. Many simply do not have smartphones, internet connection, laptops and/or financial assistance to pay data bills. The privileged sections do not share the same experience and turn a blind eye to such ‘trivial’ matters.
In Valanchery, Malappuram district of Kerala, a class X girl allegedly died by suicide because she did not have a smartphone and missed the online classes on the first day of the school reopening. The arrogant insistence on online education is proving to be prejudicial to the people who have been banished to the periphery by capitalism and casteism. The girls who had to fight very hard for their fundamental right to receive education in the first place again find themselves fighting poverty, deteriorating mental health, lack of access to the required resources, and sexual discrimination at the same time.
Only 23% of working-age women form part of the labor force in India, and therefore the economic recession due to the pandemic will affect women more than working men. About 12 million women (9 in urban and 3 in rural) lost their jobs in April and May. The girls from low-income families are likely to take up temporary/odd jobs to support themselves.
The education system worldwide has been impaired, and its return to normalcy will be anything but easy. The schools will need to implement stringent safety measures for the students and the staff. Majority of the government schools and many private institutions as well do not have the prerequisites to reopen, including safe drinking water from daily-inspected water purifiers, healthcare facility within the school premises, hygienic surroundings with plenty of fresh air, clean toilets, et cetera.
Most importantly, the government must acknowledge the risk to girls’ education and the existing gender divide in internet population. The government should devise district-wise plans to ensure that the girls do not quit school and provide economic assistance to families who can no longer afford to send their children to school.
The extent of hostel accommodation and existing scholarships for girl education should be increased. The GDP expenditure on education should be doubled from 3% to 6%. Giving in to the pandemic is not an option for India, we must choose to adapt anew, incorporate gender equity and social diversity in our well-thought-out education policies and reimagine public education system in India.