October 11, 2020 marks another milestone in the history of recognition of girls’ rights. As we commemorate the ninth anniversary of International Day of the Girl Child, girls across the globe are reeling under multiple deprivations.
The pandemic has incessantly widened the gender disparities and distortions in the education system. Moreover, it reversed the accomplishments made in girls’ education before any systemic response.
UNESCO[1] reports that 158 million girls enrolled from pre-primary to tertiary levels of education are affected by the school closures in India during the pandemic. In this context, it is critical to explore the risks to the lives of girls in India.
Shocking Realities
An exploration[2] into the concerns on girls’ education in the COVID-19 context unravels deeply entrenched negative social norms and cultural practices within a patriarchal framework that perpetuate gender inequalities. Young girls bear the burden of unpaid care work, the digital divide in education, health concerns, infliction of violence, and multiple shards of vulnerabilities including poverty and loss of livelihoods of their families.
The current crisis has increased manifold the unpaid care burden of adolescent girls. With the return-migration of many family members, the drudgery of household work has increased. The patriarchal nature of the society dictates that girls prioritise care work (cooking, cleaning, fetching water, caring siblings, caring elderly etc) over their studies. These girls are trapped in a vicious cycle of household chores placing the needs of family members ahead of their own, and as a result, they are left with inadequate time to rest and study.
With the closure of schools, there is subsequently poor access to midday meals for children. Without the perk of midday meals, there is every chance of girls dropping out. Parents reinforce their gender roles as caregivers of the family rather than breadwinners.
The absence of midday meals has posed severe vulnerabilities on the nutrition of young girls. The adolescent girls are socialized to feed all the family members before having their own meals. Any failure in these cultural practices leads to infliction of abuse and violence. These unequal gender practices in the domestic spaces deprive the adolescent girls of nutrition, thereby generating a deteriorating impact in their learning capacities.
Though schools are providing remote learning facilities to students, the digital divide is exacerbating across genders. Only 10.9% of households in India have internet access. Internet access to rural households (5.7%) is much below the national average.
In poor rural families, girls have less access to electronic gadgets as compared to their male counterparts. The underpinning negative gender norms of undervaluing girls is reinforced by ladling those privileges only to boys.
Young girls who migrated back to villages from the cities are doubly disadvantaged. The deep-rooted societal notion of controlling the sexuality of girls to safeguard the honour of the family is exposed through these gender unequal and preferential practices.
Girls encounter severe policing while accessing online mediums (what they listen to, what they watch) and are aggressively monitored on their screen time. This societal controlling behaviour keeps adolescent girls from achieving their learning outcomes, especially on their work submissions, follow-ups with teachers, assessment performances, and more.
Schools are safe institutional spaces (through peers, teachers, counsellors) for many young girls who are exposed to various forms of abuse in their private and public spaces. Due to school closure in the COVID-19 context, girls are deprived of support systems where they can share their concerns.
With return migration of many family members, these girls live in crammed dwellings with little privacy. They fall prey to inflictions of physical, sexual and emotional violence in those settings. The trauma of family conflicts and domestic violence also derails their learning outcomes.
Poor families have lost their livelihoods, and with return migration, the households are striving hard to meet both ends. The prevailing negative gender norms of undervaluing girls’ forces these households to consider adolescent girls as a financial liability.
In the pandemic context, where employment opportunities are limited and agrarian distress is widespread, uncertainty over the availability of money and funds for sustaining family members, compels families to marry off their daughters at an early age. This deprives them of their education and life aspirations.
Poverty and economic distress are often compelling the families to trade on the sexuality of young girls. The family members are coercing the young girls into sex trade or forced marriages in return for financial incentives.
During the lockdown period, 91% of interventions made by ChildLine [3] on the issue of child marriage were based on the concerns of girls below 18 years. 39% of those calls were from girls of 11-15 years and 60% from girls of 16-18 years.
Sex trafficking and child labour rackets are thriving in this lucrative business, risking the lives of adolescent girls. The manifestation of such forms of violence on adolescent girls invisibilises them from the school education system.
Adolescent girls are also facing health issues, especially fatigue, stress and are too emotionally shattered to cope with the pandemic. As caregivers to those infected with covid, they are exposed to high levels of health risk.
Their menstrual hygiene is at stake due to challenges in the availability of sanitary napkins and access to safe and clean toilet facilities. Young girls kept their health concerns under wraps.
Time Is Up… Let’s Come Together
During these challenging times, we are bound to reinstate our commitment to the cause of girl’s education. Let’s ensure that our girls have an enabling environment to continue their education and stay enrolled. By providing safe and secure spaces, we can ensure them a life with dignity during, and in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Sharing care work and equal digital access to education will go a long way in promoting positive gender norms.
On this International Day Of The Girl Child, let’s acknowledge girls’ rights and wrap them with love, and support them in colouring their dreams.
References
[2] The inputs in this section are based on the author’s work on COVID-19 with different organisations as well as some anecdotes.
[3] Times Of India, ‘Govt intervened to stop over 5,584 child marriage during coronavirus-induced lockdown‘