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The issue of illiteracy and lack of education to girls is closely related to poverty. Poverty is a major cause of various health and social issues in India. It is true that the people living a life below the poverty line do not have enough funds to educate all their children so they prefer giving education to boys and keep girls away from schools and colleges. Poor women are not so educated to hold the power of taking a decision to have limited number of children. The truth they believe is ‘More number of hands to work more will be the income in the family’. Though that’s a myth but uneducated families live their entire life with this belief. This eventually restricts the growth and development of girls in these families who are just taught to do all the household work.
Fortunately in the metro cities and big towns, the rate of female literacy is increasing at a rapid pace but it’s unfortunate that the same trend does not prevail in villages in small towns. In such places there are inadequate school facilities that do not have enough space and room to accommodate all the children. In such schools even the basic requirements of an educational facility like table-chair, source of clean drinking water, playground, and library are not available. Furthermore, there is hardly one or two teacher to educate the children there. In a situation like this parents feel that educating their sons is more important than giving education to their daughters so they only send their sons to schools.
Apart from this most of the schools giving higher education are situated out of the village or town. In such cases parents are afraid to send their girls to long distance because of the fear of molestation or sexual harassment. Some do provide primary education to girls but after that their learning process is put to an end because parents feel insecure to send their girls out after a certain age. This way parents are definitely securing their daughters but are killing their beliefs, values, self-respect, and desire to attain wisdom. Is this the right way to protect girls of the society? How long will girls stay imprisoned within the four walls of their houses? Even women have the right to education and no one can take that right away.
Rather than putting an end to girl’s education in the country one should try and fight against the social evils that can help them live a secure life even outside their homes. To bring this cause to public awareness there should be more widespread education on the issue, more social institutions to discuss the causes to bring an appropriate solution, more of counseling, and also improved school facilities.
Not only the government but we as members of the society are also held responsible for triggering the issue. Now, the combined effort from both ends has to be implemented to ensure that each and every child attains education.
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