A few days back when I was surfing through the newspaper, I found an editorial that talked about why educating girls is important. It was written by a male writer.
For a few of you, it must be hard to wrap your head around the fact that why do we need an editorial to convince people to make education equally accessible for all? Isn’t it basic? Or let’s just say, ‘bare minimum’?
The harsh reality of the Indian subcontinent is that we have progressed a lot in past decades and female literacy has shot up but to many girls, education is still a distinct dream. For many, even getting primary education is hard. For those lucky ones who get it, getting a higher education is still a big NO.
So, being very well aware of the problem, I started reading that editorial. In brief, it said, educating girls will make the GDP of our country 26% large, there will be a surplus flow of labor, and educated girls can also take good care of children’s education and their nutrition etc. I was confused to know that not for a single time, it was mentioned in that editorial, what will SHE gain out of it.
It talked about what the entire country will get, it talked about what companies will get, it talked about what the children will get. But what about her?
We are convincing ourselves that, educating girls is important because it will benefit us (males). It will benefit the GDP of the country which is overwhelmingly run by males. It will benefit the companies, most of them run by males (by supplying labor). It will benefit children who are carrying names of the males. Overall, “educate her so that she can serve us well”.
Now I don’t want to rant about it. You may think that I took that editorial out of proportion. But so many times I see that this is what is implied in the undertone when we say that it will boost our economy or other things.
Why can’t we just say that women’s education should be a priority because, they are, Surprise! Surprise!, HUMANS?
Because they have a unique PERSONALITY that can be developed. Because they have THOUGHTS. Because their brain, just like the ones of males, can THINK!
They are HUMANS, hence they too need education, to know themselves better, to make informed choices for themselves, and to discover their way in life.
It baffles me that we see everything for its utility in form of monetary profit. Even basic things like education or providing basic low-cost primary health services to women, we see them from point of view of economics or how it will benefit the male counterpart.
I can not help but recall the lines of the poem “Because I am a girl, I must Study” by late Kamala Bhasin. It goes like – “To dreams take flight, I must study. Because knowledge brings to light, I must study. Because I am a girl, I must study”.
To conclude I will just say that education is a basic necessity of the modern world. It is high time that the question regarding girls’ education should shift from “why?” to “How?”.