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We need to educate girls - and boys - all children, irrespective of their gender. This video is a grim reminder - girls deserve to go to school and enjoy their childhood too.
We need to educate girls – and boys – all children, irrespective of their gender. This video is a grim reminder – girls deserve to go to school and enjoy their childhood too.
“If you educate a man you educate an individual, but if you educate a woman you educate a nation.” — African Proverb
Education is, I believe, the greatest gift we can give a child irrespective of gender. It lays down the foundation for vibrant lives and is the ticket to a brighter and better tomorrow. Sadly in India and many other parts of the world, children and especially girls are denied this very basic right.
So why is girls’ education treated as an after-thought in India? Well, the roots of the reluctance to educate girls lie in patriarchal beliefs at the very core of Indian society. It is astonishing to see that even though some of the greatest leaders and change-makers in the world are women, the literacy rates among Indian women are dismal. Despite the high primary school enrollment rates in India, the female literacy rate as per the 2011 census stands at a meager 65.46%.
The key factor responsible for this miserable female literacy percentage in India is the higher drop-out rate of girls from school as compared to boys. Wonder why? Well, because in many parts of India, to educate girls is still viewed as a waste of time and money. From the moment a girl child is born, she is viewed as a burden. Parents worry more about her marriage than investing in her education. Adding fuel to the fire is the regressive social perception, that despite education, the primary role of a woman will always be that of the primary caregiver for the family, her key responsibility being towards her family and household, her only identity being that a mother or a wife or a daughter-in-law; “then, why bother to educate girls?” goes the thinking.
While the current government has announced the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao campaign, a lot more needs to be done, to ensure that girls don’t just sign up for school, but stay there.
The Dahi Cheeni advertisement by the Naik Foundation is a heart-warming story of Sarita and her desire to go to school and study. We don’t know whether it is her parents’ economic condition or the regular patriarchal mindset at play, but despite being of school going age, Sarita stays at home helping her mother with the household chores – cleaning, cooking, waking up her brother every morning, packing his lunch box and watching him go to school everyday – all the while thinking and wishing that she could join him too.
However, it is refreshing to see her little brother noticing what his elder sister desires, taking matters into his own hands and doing something about it. What does he do? Watch the video below!
Image: You Tube
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UP Boards Topper Prachi Nigam was trolled on social media for her facial hair; our obsession with appearance is harsh on young minds.
Prachi Nigam’s photo has been doing the rounds on social media for the right reasons. Well, scratch that- I wish the above statement were true. This 15-year-old girl should ideally be revelling in her spectacular achievement of scoring a whopping 98.05% and topping her tenth-grade boards. But oddly enough, along with her marks, it’s something else that garners more attention – her facial hair.
While the trolls are driving themselves giddy by mocking this girl who hasn’t even completed her school yet, the ones who are taking her side are going one step ahead – they are sharing her photoshopped pictures, sans the facial hair, looking nothing less than a celebrity with captions saying – “Prachi Nigam, ten years later”.
Doctors have already diagnosed her with PCOD in their comments, based on photographic evidence. While we have names for people shamed for their weight – body shaming, for their skin colour- racism, for their age- age shaming, for being a female- sexism, this category of shaming where one faces criticism for their appearance has no name. With that, it also has zero shame attached to it.
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