Girl Education a Milestone to Achieve.

by Shivanand Hulyalkar Maharashtra Pradesh Youth Congress

“You educate a boy, you educate only an individual. You educate a girl, you educate the whole family.” India has a long history of female foeticide and derogatory treatment awarded to girls, especially in the rural parts of the country. We are a country rooted in patriarchy, where boys are considered important because they take the lineage forward, whereas girls are considered a debt as she finally gets married and leaves her maternal home. The evil of sex determination sits with its tentacles spread in the minds of the uneducated rural folk. If the sex of the foetus is determined when in the womb itself, the pregnant mother is coerced by the ladies of the house to abort giving rise to female foeticide. If the girl manages to grow up by her good fortune, she is subjected lifelong to sarcastic comments directed at her, first in her maternal home, and later in her marital home. Mr. Shivanand Hulyalkar, a Congress leader from Pune feels strongly against the subject of female foeticide and infanticide. “According to Hindu scriptures, Goddess Lakshmi is born when a girl is born. A girl is a boon to her family, community and nation and ought to get the good treatment she deserves” he say.

Mr Hulyalkar feels that more efforts need to be taken by the Indian government to educate the girl child. When a girl is well educated, she is able to take the right decision for herself and her family, saving out on health and financial woes in the long run. The Prime Minister introduced a few initiatives for girl child education but the implementation has not taken place as planned. The Midday Meal Scheme under which girls would get free midday meals was to be implemented from July 2017 is yet waiting to be implemented by the BJP government. The Right to Education (RTE) Act was passed to encourage parents to send their girls to school with no fees charged upto Std. 8. Inspite of this Act, even today there are so many parents denying their daughters basic education. The Beti Bachao Beti Padhao initiative by the BJP naturally has its drawbacks. Says Mr Shivanand Hulyalkar, “To look at girl education from a different perspective, by imposing higher GST on sanitary pads, an essential requirement of every female, the ruling party has shown tremendous disregard towards welfare of young girls. Sanitary pads should be provided free of cost to every female in rural areas and at very nominal rates in urban areas. Mandatory scholarships should be awarded to competent girls from the Government as well as private entities. At the time of campus recruitment, girls should be given equal weightage as boys for a particular position. They should not be discriminated on the basis of gender. For women nowadays are not only working successfully in the corporate sector but are also successful in the Indian Army.” There is always room for growth and the common man should elect any party after a lot of thought and consideration as the education of their daughters is as much in the hands of the ruling Government as in theirs.