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Saturday 14 September 2013

Education for the Girl Child

 - Payal Shadija

A girl child who is even a little bit educated is more conscious of family planning, health care and in turn her children’s own education. Education of a child begins from the family and the first teacher is the mother. Goddess Saraswati, a female, is revered as the Goddess of Education, in India, and the irony is that we’ve the most number of illiterate females.  

Girls have always been kept away from education as per the wishes of the family. The birth of a son is celebrated lavishly while girls have been considered as a burden on the family. The prevalence of child marriage was practiced, widely. Later, social reformers like Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Swami Dayanand Saraswati and Jyotiba Phule played a very important part in bringing up the importance of women in India.

In most of the families, educating a girl child is thought as a waste of money as they have to again pay dowry in the future for their wedding. Whereas, educating a boy was more preferable as they would help in the family business.

Education helps to remove economic, political and cultural hurdles. Educating a girl reduces female infanticide, dowry, child marriage, female suicides and similar problems. Educating a girl child means educating the next generation. Women like Kalpana Chawla, Kiran Bedi, Sonia Gandhi, Sushma Swaraj and Uma Bharti have played a very crucial role in the society.

Educating a girl child is better investment for parents because when girls get employed they think of their parents first.

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