GIRL CHILD AND GENDER INEQUALITY

The life of most girls in India are marked for suffering before they are even born. First comes female foeticide, a horrific practice that has been abolished in India but still takes place with sad frequency. Otherwise, it’s female infanticide or abandoning of the new-born baby girl. Next is the denial of education to girls; a chance for them to have better lives than their mothers. This is because of societal expectations and conditioning - that the role of the woman is ultimately in the house and it’s better for her to start helping out early in life.

Though the Indian parliament passed the landmark Right to Education Act in 2009, which makes education free and compulsory for all children between the ages of 6 and 14, it failed then to address one of the key reasons why girls are unable to attend school with regularity: housework. Our families function in such a way that a disproportionate amount of housework is carried out by women and girls. This is especially true in the informal work sector — among farmers and labourers — when the mother also steps out to help with work and then the burden of housework falls on the shoulders of the young daughters.

When girls grow up with such obvious limitations to their opportunities, it results in gender inequalities that continue into adulthood. This leaves women unable to realise their full and true potential. The discrimination that they would have started to experience in their early years persists into adolescence, with girls facing heavy restrictions on their freedom of movement and ability to make decisions regarding their education, work, marriage and social relationships.

This has led to only a dismal 29% of Indian women above the age of 15 being a part of the formal workforce, according to a UNDP report published in 2011. This disparity is reflected in every industry, except when it comes to unpaid care work. Women in India perform nearly ten times the global average of unpaid care work, and this can only change with the plugging of all the loopholes that are in the way of girls getting the education they deserve.

For this to happen, a drastic shift in social mindsets is required. We need to normalise the sharing of housework and care work across genders and equip girls with the tools to help them pursue education in an undisrupted fashion.

Maatru Pratishtana’s initiative, “She Can Fly” is set up to enable, equip and empower girls with quality education, proper nutrition, good health, adequate skills, and above all, the self-confidence needed to make and stand by decisions for herself.