Though the government has come up with several policies to eliminate gender disparity and making education universal and compulsory for all, yet the ground reality still remains different.
A study conducted by Child Rights and You (CRY, an NGO which works with about 200 partners across India) in Bengaluru-based urban slum at Madiwala during August-September 2012 has revealed that marriage is still high on priority than education for the girl child. Among the sample population of 100 people taken up for the study, 67% of the respondents reported that girls should get married earlier than boys.
The more surprising figure that came out during the survey was that about 80% of the respondents were not even aware that several education schemes are exclusively available for girls in the State. “We have been working for the rights and education of children, especially the underprivileged children for the past several years and we have seen that for a large number of girls in India, quality education has remained an elusive dream. More so people in the urban slums are not even aware of that free and compulsory education in the primary and upper primary level exists” said Regina Thomas, director, south, CRY. In addition to this, the study also revealed that the number of school dropouts were more among girls. More than half of the respondents, above 54% of them said that more girls were out of school than boys in their locality. Meanwhile, 40% of the respondents accepted that schoolgoing girls were getting married in their locality.
“The report on girl children’s education clearly brings out an urgent need to address the issue at all levels. While we have made rapid strides in universalisation of primary education over the last two decades, there are still significant gaps especially at the level of secondary education,” says Regina.