Girls have to be taught to believe in themselves; parents, male family members and teachers must be empathetic and understanding to the problems faced by girls
For Class 9 student Seema (name changed), school was a place of learning, knowledge and unbridled fun with friends. She used to look forward to going to school every morning. But then something changed. A group of boys started harassing her on the way, passing lewd comments and making indecent gestures.
At first, Seema ignored them. Then, she protested politely. When matters got out of hand, she went to her father. The father decided that Seema needn’t go to school any more.
The 15-year-old cried, and pleaded, but to no avail. A couple of months later, she was married off. After all, who would take “responsibility” if anything “wrong” happened to her? Not her father, definitely!
This incident in a remote village in Samastipur, Bihar, is just one among many — reflective of the larger gender construct in our society, deeply skewed against girls and women.
Ingrained social norms have created a restrictive divide among boys and girls, and men and women, chained their thought process and instilled in them reluctance to question or challenge prescribed societal norms.
Seema’s father did not think it necessary to act against the “eve-teasers”. He simply stopped her daughter from going to school and found the ‘right match’ for her, in a matter of months. For him, this was the ‘safer’ option.
Keep them ‘safe’, marry them young?
Researchers from the Institute for Employment Research, University of Warwick, UK, Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB) and Child Rights and You (CRY) recently strung together a study that highlights, among other things, how the perception of violence against girls and women actually hampers their over-all development.
One of the papers cites data findings to establish a link between crime against women and girls in the locality, as perceived by their families, to early marriages in those particular households.
When girls grow up in patriarchal societies like ours, where violence and harassment are prevalent, and normalised to a great extent, this fear of violence has serious impacts for girls’ opportunities and freedom.
The responsibility for preventing violence too often falls to girls: “don’t walk there”, “you can’t wear that”, “don’t go out at night”, “you shouldn’t be alone”.
Restrictive advice like this often limits a girl’s ability to leave the house when she chooses and also forces her to think and behave in a particular way — thus becoming a prisoner of the prevalent gender-construct.
A recent webinar discussion on the findings of the study — Perception and prevalence of crime and its impact on development of girls — brings out the analysis in a categorical way.
The narrative of University of Warwick’s senior research fellow Gabriel Atfield is stark but real. When parents (especially in marginalised families) hesitate to send their daughters to school, or let them pursue a career or job, it is actually an interplay of a gendered thought process and a few economic concerns as well.
Parents consider spending on their son’s education a ‘worthwhile investment for the future’. Ladka padega to kamayga… ladki padegi to kya karegi? What is the point of ‘wasting’ money on girls’ education?
Furthermore, families are extremely fearful of the sexual violence or abuse that their girls may face if they step out of their homes — they may be accosted on their way to school, inside school premises or out in the open neighbourhood.
The embarrassment the family may be subjected to if young girls ‘fall into trouble’ and lose their worth in the ‘marriage market’ weigh heavily on their minds. It’s not petty crimes like theft or robbery they are worried about, it’s about protecting the girl’s chastity.
As expected, this trend is more observed in families in northern India, where the gender construct is rigid — a point that is substantiated by the findings of the paper by University of Warwick’s senior research fellow Sudipa Sarkar.
Whatever be the reason at play, the end result spells doom for young girls and women. This reduced access to schooling, higher education and public spaces changes their lives irrevocably.
Shilpa Phadke, professor at Centre for the Study of Contemporary Culture, School of Media and Cultural Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, feels there is no other solution than to bolster inclusivity of girls in public spaces.
When girls are kept away from schools, education or participation in public life, their ability to earn a living and become independent is drastically limited.
Without ample opportunities to learn and progress, drastic income inequality and partial or full dependence on men keeps girls in a cycle of poverty and confinement to their homes, with nothing better to do than complete household chores.
Recent data on child marriage (National Family Health Survey-5 – 2019-21) is a grim reminder of the bane that plagues our society.
Every fourth woman in the age-group of 20-24 was married before the age of 18, though in percentage terms, underage marriages came down from 26.8 per cent to 23.3 per cent in the last five years. The problem is much bigger in rural India, where 27 per cent of the total marriages accounted for are underage marriages.
Inequality, on the platter
If stopping girls from going to school or marrying them off young are go-to solutions for a section of families, giving them less to eat is yet another crude reminder of the gender construct in our society.
Drawing from primary data collected by a CRY study, Educating the Girl Child: role of incentivisation and other enablers and disablers, researchers focused a paper on children and intra-household gender dynamics among educationally backward sections in four states.
According to the study findings highlighted by IIMB researcher Dipanwita Ghatak, 51.1 per cent of parents report that physical insecurity of girls is one reason that restricts them from sending girls to school.
Some 59.4 per cent parents agree that it is not safe for girls to travel to school alone and 78.2 per cent parents say that in their household, girls are not allowed to go out alone. Some 20.4 per cent girls report having experienced physical / sexual violence in the school for being a girl.
Boys (and men), obviously, are the ‘privileged’ ones, in every which way — even in the food they eat. It often comes down to women and girls “eating least, eating last and eating least nutritious food”.
Undernourished mothers give birth to undernourished babies, leading to intergenerational cycles of undernourishment — majority of the undernourished in India are women and children.
Most women and girls have “no other option” — they believed that since they were born as women and played female roles in the household, they were solely responsible for the domestic chores and being the primary caregiver.
For them, it was a role the society had dictated for them and they feared violence, abuse and even divorce and abandonment if they did not fulfill it.
This systemic nutritional inequality entrenched in the social fabric leads to serious health issues.
A young mother, suffering from anemia, stunted growth, eye problems, diabetes and heart disease passes it on to her daughter, who if brought up in the same social norms of gender-based discrimination in access to food, remains caught in the cycle.
NFHS-5 data finds that the percentage of anemic women in the country has risen to 57 per cent from 53.1 per cent over the last five years and that of teenage girls (15-19 years) has gone up alarmingly to 59.1 per cent from 54.1 per cent.
Looking ahead…
The question is, how can the tables turn? Let’s accept the reality: Given that the gender construct in our society has been shaped up over centuries, a radical change is unlikely to come in a fortnight.
Addressing the issues on the surface with policies and schemes may not always yield the desired outcome, points out Soham Sahoo, assistant professor at Centre for Public Policy, IIMB.
Institutional policies and schemes need to focus more on manifold long-term engagements, complete with planned implementation, efficient monitoring system and periodical assessment of impact on beneficiaries.
And away from schemes and regulations, mindsets have to be changed. The fear has to be banished from the minds of girls and parents alike — Lakhi Das, child rights advocate, ASES, Jharkhand, couldn’t have summed it up better.
A skewed thought process, dogged with gendered social norms, has to be redefined through targeted and sustained interventions at various levels — individual, family, community and local governance.
Girls have to be taught to believe in themselves, feels CRY chief executive Puja Marwaha. Parents need to be counseled about how their daughters are as good as they can raise them to be, with equal opportunities for education, participation in public places, jobs et al.
Fathers, brothers and husbands need to be understanding and appreciative of their daughters / sisters / wives as individuals with equal rights and what they can achieve if given an opportunity to utilise their full potential.
Teachers, in schools and colleges, need their share of lessons too — they need to be empathetic and understanding towards the problems that the girls might face.
For girls and women to feel safe and comfortable in the world outside their homes, public infrastructure needs to be bolstered. Install road lights so that girls are not scared to walk the dark lanes alone.
Make schools safer so that they can attend classes without the worry of being harassed or attacked. Provide platforms where they can voice their opinions with confidence. Encourage them to participate in public events and pursue their careers. Make workplaces safe and congenial.
As part of my work as a child rights advocate, I have had the opportunity to interact with several young girls from the marginalised sections of society.
A despondent, helpless girl in an impoverished slum many summers ago is now a member of a T20 cricket team. A girl, whose mother is a sex worker, is now pursuing higher studies with elan.
If there is a Seema fighting new battles of her own in some remote corner of the country, there is also a group of impoverished 12-15 year-olds who are conquering despair, fear and inhibition with renewed passion, confidence and vigour and winning hearts and medals at a national-level kickboxing event.
Planned interventions do work wonders. Just let THEM be.
Trina Chakrabarti is Regional Director (East), CRY – Child Rights and You
Views expressed are the author’s own and don’t necessarily reflect those of Down To Earth
We are a voice to you; you have been a support to us. Together we build journalism that is independent, credible and fearless. You can further help us by making a donation. This will mean a lot for our ability to bring you news, perspectives and analysis from the ground so that we can make change together.
When girls are kept away from schools, education or participation in public life, their ability to earn a living and become independent is drastically limited. Photo: iStock.png)
Comments are moderated and will be published only after the site moderator’s approval. Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name. Selected comments may also be used in the ‘Letters’ section of the Down To Earth print edition.