Payal, a fourteen-year-old girl, lives in a shelter home in Delhi’s Sarai Kale Khan area with her five family members. Every day, she goes out to attend a Zoom class online and returns to help with daily chores.
She says, “It is difficult for me to study with so many people around, so I go out of the shelter home, attend the class, and return only after completing my homework. I am just happy that I am able to study… two years ago, I used to beg and pick up waste from the road. So many other children I know are not even getting this opportunity.”
Payal is among 350 lucky children from the slums and low-income families who are being taught by an NGO named CHETNA in New Delhi. However, there are still many children who haven’t been rescued from the shackles of poverty.
Overall, the lockdown in India has affected 158 million girl students, impacting their dreams of formal education and of better lives. Studies further reveal that even before COVID-19, India had 30 million out-of-school children, of which 40% were adolescent girls.
Specifically, in the National Capital, nearly 16 lakh children from low-income families studying in government and municipal schools face disruptions in their studies without access to mobiles, internet, and laptops, even as privileged students from private schools are taking online classes amid the lockdown.
Digital Divide
Technology has been highly gender-cognizant and discriminative in India. The Mobile Gender Gap Report 2019 analyzes that Indian women are 56% less likely to use the internet than men, with only 35% of active users being women. At the same time, only 38% of women have access to a device in comparison to 71% of men.
Since lockdown, Radhika, a teacher at a government-aided school in Delhi, has been conducting online classes for her students. She came across a family of four siblings that didn’t allow their three daughters to take the classes.
The parents reasoned that online education for four children consumed many resources like the internet and devices, and they did not have enough money to bear the cost. They told her they wanted to prioritize their son’s education. “At least we were going to allow our daughters to study till the 12th; otherwise, girls in our family are not encouraged to go to school,” they added.
When pushed to the limits, many parents chose to prioritize their son’s education. This is because societal norms indicate that he will bring glory to his family, carry the lineage, and look after the parents in their old age. On the other hand, girls will marry into other families, so what’s the need of spending precious resources on them in this situation.
Shreya, a 12-year-old girl from a Delhi Government school, says, “I can’t use the phone at home. My parents fear that I will talk to boys and not focus on my studies.” Thus, if the girls use a phone, they will be seen treading on the ‘wrong path’.
On asking whether she knows how to use the device or the internet, she says, “I only know how to download notes on WhatsApp, as I don’t have practice using the phone and also I don’t understand English.” Therefore, Technological ignorance and language barriers have further caused hindrance in girl’s education in the pandemic.
Burden Of The Household
The patriarchal setup has created rigid segregation of roles at home. Girls are expected to do domestic chores, forcing them to ignore studies and eventually drop out of the school system forever. A report by India’s Centre for Budget and Policy Studies found 71% of girls are doing domestic chores during the pandemic, compared to 38% of boys.
Kriti, a class 10 student who stays in a one-room flat in Delhi, finds it hard to attend online classes. The daughter of a rickshaw-puller doesn’t own a laptop, and the family possesses only one smartphone, that too by her father. Since the lockdown was imposed, Kriti’s mother has been working as domestic help in a nearby colony.
“I have to clean the house, cook food, and look after my younger siblings in the absence of my mother, due to which I have to miss my classes. I have to study myself from material available in WhatsApp groups,” said Kriti.
Violence, Child Marriage, And Child Labor
During the lockdown, the extended time families spent at home increased gender-based violence like sexual abuse, harassment, domestic violence, etc. The worst part was that the girls were confined with the abuser and had nowhere to escape. This jeopardized girls’ ability to continue learning and led to mental health hazards like depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, etc. Second, limited access to police, justice, and social support services, further aggravated the issue.
Instances of child marriages and early pregnancies have also risen exponentially. Seema, who is a mother of two daughters, says, “My relatives pressurized me to marry off my teenage daughters and get rid of the ‘burden’ in the lockdown, but I made sure that they continue their education, and not be a victim of child marriage like me.”
Studies predict that about 20% of girls will not return to school after the pandemic. Many families that experienced a cash crunch in lockdown are also searching for extra sources of income, and girls are sent to other houses as maids.
Mid Day Meals
One of the most prominent side effects of the closure of schools is the end of Mid-day meal programs. These meals ensured at least one meal per day for most children. Now, this guaranteed meal is also gone, and issues of malnutrition and health hazards have risen.
Menstrual Hygiene
Reshma, a class 11 student in a Delhi government school, says, “We used to get free sanitary napkins every month in school, but now I have to use cloth instead, which is very uncomfortable because we can’t afford sanitary napkins.”
Schools provided amenities such as a clean washroom and sanitary napkins and played an integral role in sensitizing and sparking conversations about relevant issues like menstrual hygiene, sex education, women safety, sexual abuse, harassment, etc. However, this has not been possible in the online mode.
The Way Forward
Therefore, there is an urgent need for implementing policies to ensure that the Digital Divide does not manifest into a divide of opportunity and education. RTE mandates free education for 6-14 years olds. Therefore this should also be implemented in exceptional situations such as the pandemic.
Thus, to bridge the digital divide, there should be a collaboration between government, civil society, and the private sector, and they must painstakingly work to improve digital infrastructure, technological literacy, and connectivity to rural areas. In addition, the values of digital inclusivity and gender equity must be taught in policymaking as well.
Apart from this, there is a need for societal change and a paradigm shift. People should be made sensitive, empathetic, and tolerant to other genders’ needs and create an inclusive environment for them to progress. This begins with the family itself, where the children should feel equal, irrespective of gender, and see the other genders as equal. Lastly, remember that gender equality is not a women’s issue; it is a human issue as it affects us all and can be achieved only if we work hand in hand.
The author is a Kaksha Correspondent as a part of writers’ training program under Kaksha Crisis.