Right to Education has been an important issue all over the world and many organisations have been working to provide this social right to all children. Such earnest focus towards education is necessary not just because education is a right but because, for many children, including girls, it is still out of reach. In fact, girls, who are nearly half the population, still view their own education as a privilege at times in our country.
Marriage is still acting as the wheel around which a girl’s entire life revolves in many homes in our country. The social conditioning that a man’s duty is more external and a woman’s duty is more domestic still seeps throughout a girl’s developmental years.
According to India’s Press Information Bureau, the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) of girl children in schools has been increasing over the years. However, the grim reality remains that despite improvements with respect to school environments and lessons on one’s right to education, many girls are forced to drop out of school or marry early. As per UNICEF’s U-Report Poll 2022, 38 per cent of respondents said they knew at least one girl who had dropped out during the pandemic. The National Family Health Survey 2019-2021 identified 23.3 per cent of women married before the age of 18.
As a Teach for India Alumnus, I have taught children from underprivileged backgrounds for two years and now work as a Career Education Project Lead in the schools of a tier-2 city in India, catering to students from varied backgrounds. As my journey in the education sector is taking me through different scenarios, I find gender discrimination an issue still alive and brewing in society. Many girls I meet still view education as a privilege. Despite the enactment of some of the most socially progressive policies with respect to girls’ education, why are so many school-going girls in India still viewing education through that lens?
My conversations with girls and teachers from schools in Madurai and Bangalore can maybe help shed some light on this.
“A boy is allowed to choose the course for his higher studies and even the college and city he wants to go to. However, a girl’s higher education choices are made completely by her parents and she seldom has an agency in it. This is because a girl’s higher education is only to pass the time until she reaches her rightful age for marriage and parents don’t expect her to settle professionally before getting married. Whereas, a boy is expected to settle professionally before starting a family and hence gets the time, resources and the freedom during his educational years to be able to do that,” says Jayashree, a Grade 10 student from a Government Girls School in Madurai.
Parents also worry about the safety and reputation of their daughters, an important trade factor in the marriage market.
“I’ve seen this, especially in rural areas. If a boy gets into a relationship, he is scolded, counselled or even ignored, but he is not forced to drop out of school. However, if a girl gets into a relationship or even if she is pursued by a boy to be in a relationship with him, the first step taken by the parents is the extreme one, that is, to discontinue her education. She has no say in that decision. When parents prioritise “honour” and “reputation” over education for girls, it stops being a right, and it sustains as a privilege,” says Ms.Sangeetha, English teacher at a Government Girls School in Madurai
“Education is not just academics, it is a holistic factor including all forms and tools of learning and enlightenment. A girl who is not academically strong is mostly pulled out of the school in case of academic failure. She is not allowed to explore and participate in other spaces such as sports, arts, dance, music, etc.” she adds. says Ms.Sangeetha, English teacher at a Government Girls School in Madurai.
Another calamitous transaction manifested in various ways is the dowry system.
“If we let our daughter pursue higher education, we need to find a groom who matches her qualifications and such a groom would demand higher dowry. Hence, middle class families prefer saving that money for marriage expenses rather than spending it on their daughters’ education.” says Ms Stella, Teaching staff at a Government Girls School in Madurai.
As Ms.Sangeetha from a Government Girls School in Madurai said, education is a holistic factor and process of learning and enlightenment. Unfortunately, girls don’t have the opportunity for continuous and sustainable learning.
According to students from Sitalakshmi Girls Higher Secondary School, Madurai, girls do not get enough time or space to continue their learning at home because they are burdened with domestic works whereas their male siblings are free to do the activities of their own choice, be it studying or watching TV or using mobile or even spending time outside the house till nightfall. This also increases the boys freedom to learn with their friends while having reasonable breaks and leisure activities together but girls are mostly restricted to their homes and are in an isolated learning environment after school hours while those hours are also limited and distributed to domestic chores.
Santhosh, a Sociology Post-graduate feels that this impact of patriarchy has also affected the mindsets of the girls and women themselves who started believing that what happens to them is normal and it is important to preserve the family honour by submitting to and prioritising marriage rather than education. When asked about the policies in place that are against these practices and emphasising education as an equal fundamental right to both boys and girls, he expressed that our system is designed in a top-bottom approach whereas the implementational reality requires a bottom-up approach.
Girls from an affordable private school in Bangalore, told me about the inter-generational differences in educational rights and its impact on their education. “Our grandparents did not study or were pulled out of school very early to get married. Surprisingly, our grandmothers were educated more than our grandfathers. Fortunately, our mothers got a few more years of education than our grandmothers. However, since education has not been a priority for them and they were not allowed to use the benefits of education, they still do not understand the importance of it and would keep prioritising starting a family over education if the situation demands and they won’t understand when we try to convey to them that education is our right. Many girls of our age also don’t see education as a right and they accept early marriages or dropping out of school due to financial difficulties, while their male siblings continue to go to school,” one of the girls said.
Sohail Khan, a Grade 9 student from the same school in Bangalore said that his sister got married after she completed her 12th grade but he would be allowed to go to college. When asked about the reason for this discrimination, he said he has never thought about it or even realised that it is indeed discrimination.
The above statements regarding the factors impacting girls education has one common patriarchal ground- marriage. The deeper implication is to contain a girl’s life into domestic spaces which prevents her from autonomous and mature thinking, broader exposure and skill development – things that may enable her to make her own choices. These choices may be a threat because they may or may not align with the patriarchal family system and oppressive societal rules.
To my mind, the solution to this is to definitely teach girls to be more courageous, independent, resilient and aware. However, a lot of work also lies with the parents and the boys as well who need to be pillars of support to their female counterparts. A girl who stands up for her friend when her education is cut short, a mother who stands up for her daughter or her daughter’s friend to be educated and made independent, a brother who stands up for his sister etc can be the powerful relationships that can be built or encouraged to make this happen.
On a systemic level, we need to ask what job, if any, our present education system is doing to break down these barriers. It calls into question our whole idea of what education means. Maybe, just maybe, our idea of “education” itself needs more adaptation?