“You educate a man, you educate a man. You educate a woman, you educate a generation.”
Throughout the world’s history, it has been evident that great women stood up and raised their voices for women’s education. Be it a young teenage girl from Swat Valley or a Maharashtrian poet and a social reformer. Both Malala Yousafzai and Savitribai Phule are the pioneers in the field of women’s education. They’ve proved to be the true heroes as they have campaigned for girls’ education and played a vital role in improving women’s rights towards education.
All of us must delve into the importance of educating girls to build a better future for the generations to come. Educating a woman means educating a nation.
Throwing light on India’s literacy rates, it is 65.46% for females and above 82% for males. This huge gap of about 16% between the genders clearly shows the gender inequality in our nation. Many girls are forced to manage household chores at a very tender age. And when they acquire adolescent age, they are coerced to get married.
The people of not only our country but the whole world should acknowledge the need for educating girls. They should change their attitudes and use the concept of equal opportunities, socialisation.
Today, everybody wants to live in a discrimination-free world, and in a happy and healthy society, educating girls is a way forward for that. Education gives a woman the power to think, speak, make wiser decisions and develop society.
Illiterate women are suppressed in society. Education is the weapon that will give them confidence, knowledge and life skills. It will also help them recognise their rights, thus, decreasing suppression and crimes against them. It will enable them to break free of societal norms. It will make them a better citizen, human and parent as a whole.
Reports show that educated girls tend to marry late and have fewer children, controlling the increasing human population. Just an extra year of education reduces fertility rates by over 10% and can increase a woman’s earning by 15%. Education will help women become financially stable and stand on their feet.
Today, educated women are standing shoulder to shoulder with all successful men in this world and making everybody around proud of them. I think girls should be given a chance to prove themselves.