The role of girls’ education has often been viewed as a means to maintain or reinforce social and cultural norms, both within the family and society. This perspective raises an important question: why should girls be educated? Dominant societal views suggest that a minimal level of education for girls prepares them for companionate marriages, where both partners can engage in intellectual conversations, provide knowledge to their children, and contribute to family life. These girls are often seen as the representatives of culture, controllers of fertility, and human capital (workforce) agents of development.
However, this viewpoint overlooks a critical truth: education is not just a tool for fulfilling traditional roles but a basic necessity for independent survival and personal growth in society. Girls deserve education not only to meet societal expectations but also to empower themselves and contribute meaningfully to the world on their terms.
A look at the NEP’s (2020) point number 6.4
It says that women play an important and critical role in shaping social norms. This means that as women are biologically responsible for reproduction and associated responsibilities of nurturing, feeding and looking after the young- tasks centred primarily in and around the home, it is important to ensure that women are educated at least until a minimum level. Only then can a child get early childhood care, education and become aware of societal norms.
In 1991, India adopted privatisation and globalisation. There needs to be a few improvements in the national curriculum framework, so here comes the NCF 2000 with the basic idea of national identity and nation. Indigenous education, common care component, and common Indian identity. Linking education with essential life skills and languages and responding to the impact of globalisation and information challenges. Along with these, communication technology is the other important aim of education. The Minimum Level of Learning (MLL) was introduced just to reduce the dropout rates. So, that students can fit into or be able to survive and feed themselves and their families in the globalized world.
A critic can observe that in the NCF 2000, the primary focus was on the male child and his survival. But where is the attention to the girl child? Nandini Manjrekar, in her essay Contemporary Challenges to Women’s Education: Towards an Elusive Goal?, critiques the NCF 2000’s stance on girls’ education, highlighting how it frames girls’ education as a tool for maintaining social cohesion rather than promoting social transformation. This implies that girls are allowed to study, but only within boundaries that uphold societal norms and cultural values.
It says that there have been various successful policies and schemes implemented over the past several years like scholarships, conditional cash, and bicycles for the girls so that they can reach school on time and their parents can be confident about the security of their girl child. But the real question from the government is whether just giving a sources to them is enough. What about the regulation and whether they access the school or not is the real question.
In the pre-Covid days, I visited my village in Bihar where some of my cousin sisters had got bicycles from school. But what is ironic is that these bicycles were being used by their brothers for local commute and not by the girls who had actually received them. I curiously asked them why they were not going to school even after getting all these facilities. They said that due to responsibilities around household work they had no time or energy left to devote to studies or go to school. Adding to this, they reiterated that if all that girls were expected to do was household work and eventually get married then what was really the point of bothering too much about their studies!
They further went on to say that those like me were luckier as we had the privilege of living in a city where girls apparently had more choice and freedom and were not expected to indulge in household chores.
This is just one example from one house in the rural sector; there are many such rural setups all over the country. So, providing resources is not enough; those facilities must also be working properly in the area, which is a significant concern for the government.
While girls may be enrolled in school, many crucial decisions—such as where they will study, the language of instruction, and even which subjects they will take—are often made for them. Questions arise around how long they will be allowed to attend school and whether they will continue attending after enrollment. NCF 2000 also presents vocational studies after Class 12 as an alternative to college education, but the subjects offered are heavily gendered, including tailoring, typing, and cooking. Additionally, the NCF’s recommendation to initiate vocational training after Class 10 indirectly limits the educational opportunities for girls from disadvantaged backgrounds, reinforcing social biases and training them primarily for household roles. This restriction not only deepens societal discrimination but also has a lasting impact on both society and the girl child.
But when it comes to a male child, it is clearly seen that he will be enrolled in an English-medium and private school, and parents are making sure that he goes regularly. In addition, he gets tuition. If I ask why, the answer is in the NCF 2000 itself: a boy or male child must maintain a family in the globalised world and compete in the shrinking labor market, so he should get a quality education.
Zoya Hasan’s article Educating Muslim Girls: A Comparison of Five Indian Cities
Up to the primary level, Muslim girls are enrolled as much as Hindu girls. They are getting an education, considering it might help them achieve upward mobility. Still, reaching a certain age or in higher education, Muslim girls’ enrolment has been seen decreasing as they are failing in science and mathematics. The reason behind the faliour might be they were all learning in Urdu language when it comes to math and science they were unable to cope with these subjects. Still, boys are easily doing these subjects because they are having private coaching for extra support. There is one major finding in the Zoya Hasan article is that Muslim girls drop out because boys discontinue their education. It’s the norm in our Indian society that female can not be more educated than a male reason for that is that women find difficulties in getting married.
Most of the time, it is seen that boys are not getting higher education because their parents force them to work and to start earning for the family. Most likely the reason is opportunity cost, so some are studying higher education on the cost of opportunity cost and some are thinking that the amount of money, energy and time we will spend in our higher education instead of this we can spend our energy and time in work and will save money and will be earning. So these are the reasons boys are not studying or discontinuing their education and this impacts on our girls in the society is keeping girls away from education and it affects a lot on girls education.
When our finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman gave her speech in budget 2020 where she mentioned about the ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’ Scheme and its great and positive result in the enrolment number of girls in schools, a question arises about the pass-out results and out of those enrolled girl children who is accessing school daily. Even after Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, the percentage of girls’ enrolment numbers decreased as we looked at higher and higher education. The Primary is 104.8%, the upper primary is 95.7%, the secondary is 79.6%, and the higher secondary is 57.6%. (UDISE – 2021 to 2022). So, looking at this given data, we clearly see that enrolment number decreases down as we move towards higher education, which Zoya Hasan also mentioned about the same in Muslim girls. And here is the question: who are those enrolled girls in higher education, and which social class and caste are they coming from? And which courses or curricula they are choosing or forcefully given to them.
As we contemplate about the significance of educating girls, let’s celebrate the rights and potential of every child, regardless of gender, and commit to creating a world where every girl has equal access to education and the opportunity to thrive. To ensure equality and freedom of choice to educate a girl just as we educate a boy. Education of girls is necessary so that she can make her own decisions and stand up for herself, and she can be independent and not depend on anyone. So that she can be strong, resilient and independent. And most importantly, it’s important to educate girls because it’s their right to get educated and live their lives on their own terms.
