GENDER EQUALITY: Education for everyone to know who we are

GENDER EQUALITY: Education for everyone to know who we are By Giada . 

There is a slogan which says: “If you educate a man, you educate an individual; but if you educate a woman, you educate a family, a nation”. It was coined by Malcolm X, an African-American revolutionary, Muslim minister and human rights activist. It was a slogan that allowed educating many women. But how can we define education? Etymologically term comes from the Latin verb educĕre that is means «to draw out, "to take out" or "to take out what is inside". 

In this way it is important that everyone has the opportunity to access education, so everyone can discover what is inside themselves. And discover that, it means knowing the person who he/she. We can see how education develops the person and the mind. Education with the environment around us increases the knowledge of a person and is more conscious ofthe surrounding world. If it was accessible and equal to everyone without gender, race, religious or any economic status distinctions, it would generate a civilised society, able to live healthy and in peace, encouraging integration. Hence education is what constitutes society built by people.

Dropout Rates in Schools in India In India important successes are joined to give opportunity to everyone to access primary and secondary school, to ensure that there is equality between males and females. Gender gaps in education have narrowed, but disparities remain, especially in rural areas. This is proof that when and where there are few resources to operate with you, you can not do much and to pay the consequences of it are the last, the poor people. In fact still often in India, women and girls, especially in these areas, are particularly affected by illiteracy.

If we see the report on the UN system in India, we can see that there is a good rate of completion in primary school. In fact in 2016 dropped out from primary school 11% of children. Between 2021-2022 the survey reveals the dropout is highest at the secondary level (9-10) with 12.6 percent, followed by upper primary (6-8) with 3 percent and primary (1-5) with 1.5 percent. The data further reveals that the dropout rate is higher for girls than boys at all levels of education. Dropout rates are often linked to socio-economic factors, poverty & lack of access to quality education. But for everyone, dropping out of school often means limited job opportunities and lower incomes, leading to poverty and other social problems. For society, a high dropout rate means a less educated workforce and lower productivity, which can have long-term effects on economic growth and development.

Why are girls dropout?

One of the reasons that girls do not complete school is because of their period. In these days they stay at home because not every school has separate toilets where they can change their pads in privacy. Many of them don’t have access to sanitary pads, so they use homemade napkins and it is more comfortable to change them at home. Further, for low-income users commercial pads are costly and low-cost pads have varying quality and reach.

One other reason is the distance from school. In rural areas is it possible secondary school is far and they could not have the allow to travel so far from home. We can see how girls are not educated for independence. In other, during the journey they risk experiencing violence and harassment.

Child marriage is one of the reasons because of they dropout to school. When a girl is married, depending on the new family if she can continue her studies, not all allow this.

From a survey made between 1992 - 2006 for some girls, marriage comes before the completion of the school, so before their 18th birthday. In some countries of India the incidence is still present but it is low, at 7%; in states like Bihar, Jharkhand, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh, it still has a high prevalence of 60%. In other, in rural areas the problem is getting worse than in the urban areas, with 56% and 29% prevalence respectively. In 2006 India proclaimed Prohibition of Child Marriage Act that for girls became legal to marry at 18 years and for boys at 21 years.

The consequences of dropout

For individuals, dropping out of school often means limited job opportunities and lower incomes, leading to poverty and other social problems. For society, a high dropout rate means a less educated workforce and lower productivity, which can have long-term effects on economic growth and development. Therefore dropout is a loss of opportunity to not grow minds and so people, that could be potential and create richness for the entire country. Historically, education for girls was considered irrelevant and superfluous for future wives and mothers and detrimental to male societal authority. The dominant view was that men were heads of patriarchal households. There is a general conviction that girl and women are first wives and mothers, this match in their family roles, so their education can benefit from their social status. For boys instead, their education seems more important to society and its families. Still today girl’s education comes after that of boy’s education.

So why do girls drop out of school? They register good results in school and the parents should be proud of them. Hence why they abandon it? Generally the girls that are forced to dropout, sometimes from the families, sometimes cannot support hohousehold hores with school.

What Indian Government did

Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao is a programme launched in 2015 with the purpose to decline the differences between male and female and issues of women empowerment in their life. This project calls in action Ministries of Women and Child Development, Health & Family Welfare and Human Resource Development. After this initiative was born others aiming to increase awareness and various rallies have been organised with participation from various schools.

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) is a programme to give to everyone the opportunity to receive elementary education in a time bound manner. In fact the Constitution of India has the purpose of making free and compulsory Education to the Children between 6-14 years age group, a Fundamental Right. The programme manages to open new schools in those areas which do not have schooling facilities and improve existing school infractures adding class rooms, drinking water, maintenance and improvement grants.

In other government offers scholarship to encourage families to send their daughters to school. Despite the many initiatives, gender equality in India remains a complex and difficult goal to achieve. Government continues to work on multiple fronts, but lasting change also requires a collective commitment from society to change the cultural norms and behaviours that perpetuate gender inequality.

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Sources

https:/leducationforallinindia.com/dropout-rates-in-schools-in-india/#:text=The%20dat a%20also%20reveals%20that. is%202.7%20percent%20for%20boys.

 https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/deconstruction-notion-you-educate-man-individual-wom an-faithy-ngaira

 https://plan-international.org/publications/child-marriage-in-india/#text=Under%20Indi a's%20Prohibition %20of%20Child. permit%2C%20or%20promote%20child%20marriage

 https://www.aicte-india.org/reports/overview/Sarva-Shiksha-Abhivan

 https://www.pmindia.gov.in/en/government tr reclbeti-bachao-beti-padhao-caing-for-th e-girl-child!