26/05/2016
“When you educate a man, you
educate an individual and when you
educate a woman, you educate an
entire family.” This declaration is multi
faceted—an educated woman has the
self confidence, skills as well as intelligence to understand the need to
be a better daughter, sister, wife and
mother and make a progressive
family. Education is the only tool with
which a girl or a woman can empower
herself and eventually her family. India holds a strong determination in
educating all children, especially the
girl child. By declaring education as a
fundamental right, India ensures
constitutional provisions for providing
free and compulsory education to all the children between 6 to 14 years of
age. This provision is widely known as
the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.” Even after
declaring education as a
fundamental right, there are
numerous hurdles that prohibit a girl child from actually getting education.
The biggest hurdle is the prejudices
that families have about girls—like
girls are slow learners, they are not
rational; they are to be confined inside
the domestic household, and why bother about educating them. Only a
handful of people have actually
realized the importance of educating a
girl. Though not a direct cause, the
infamous dowry system is also
another barrier in girl child education. Families often think of a girl as a
burden and often want to save the
money for their dowry rather than
spending it on her education. A girl is
no less than a boy; if anything,
they are all the more diligent, hardworking and consistent in their
effort towards anything. A girl should
be educated in order to ensure a
better life for herself. If she is
empowered she would be in a
condition to add on the income of the family, and raising the living condition
of her family. As goes the saying from
the Rig Veda,
“the home has, verily, its foundation in
the wife.” An educated mother can
give better care to her children. Since she is the first teacher of the child, she
is ought to be well versed to inculcate
better value system in the child. An
ignorant mother would not
understand the idea of proper
hygiene and sanitation leading to lack of proper care of the child—
malnourishment is a living example of
this problem. The government of India
has initiated
various programs and policies to
ensure that a girl does not miss out any opportunity of getting education.
After independence, the government
had set up a National Committee on
Women’s Education in 1958, and it
recommended that female education
should be at par with male education. In the year 1964, the Education
Commission was set up, which largely
talked about focusing on educating
the girl child. The government came
up with ‘New Education Policy’ in the
year 1968, which focused on the overall education at both rural and
urban areas.
