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Inclusive Education: Ensuring Rights of the Girl Child

-V Rukmini RaoGramya Resource Center for Women vrukminirao@yahoo.com

Social Justice and Equity in Quality Education

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The Current Status-Gender Discrimination World-wide of the more than 110 million children

not enrolled in school, nearly 60% are girls By age 18, girls have received an average of 4.4

years less education than boys In some countries in sub-Saharan Africa,

adolescent girls have HIV rates up to five times higher than adolescent boys

Pregnancies and child-birth related health problems cause the death of nearly 146,000 teenage girls each year

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The Current Status-Gender Discrimination-contd.. In sub-Saharan Africa, a woman faces a 1 in 13

chance of dying in child birth At least one in three girls and women worldwide

have been beaten or sexually abused in their life time

An estimated 150 million girls under 18 have experienced forced sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual violence involving physical contact.

Three million girls and women are subjected to female genital mutilation every year

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The Current Status-Gender Discrimination-contd.. Over 100 million women are now missing in

Asia which will result in a 12 to 15% excess of young men in the next 20 years

China and India alone are responsible for 80 million missing females.

Women and children account for 80% of civilian casualties during armed conflict

Source: Vital Statistics UN Cyber School Bus, UN Secretary General’s Study on Violence against Children, UNICEF

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Girls’ Education in India

At the time of independence, the national female literacy rate was as low as 8.9%

Gross enrollment ratio for girls was 24.8% at primary level and 4.6% at the upper primary level in the 11-14 years age group

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Access to Schooling Improved

In 1950-51, 2,09,671 primary and 13,596 upper primary schools were functional

In 2004-05, 7,67,522 schools are functional at the primary level and 2,74,731 schools at the upper primary level.

Today 98% of India’s rural population has access to primary schools within a Kilometer of their habitation

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Access to Schooling Improved In 1950-51, enrollment of boys was 13.8

million and 5.4 million girls in primary school.

In 2004-05, this has increased to 69.7 million boys and 61.1 million girls in primary school

At upper primary level, enrollment increased from 2.6 million boys and 0.5 million girls to 28.5 million boys and 22.7, million girls

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Policy Framework

Constitution of India Article 15(1): Prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth.—(1) The State shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them.

Education for All, 1986 Modified in 1992 Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, EFA 2001

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Policy Framework –Contd.. Earlier education was a State subject in

the federal structure 42nd Constitutional Amendment in 1976

brought education into the concurrent list Education now responsibility of Central

government, State Government, Local Government

Education cess levied to raise resources

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Policy Framework –Contd.. 86th Constitutional Amendment Act, 2002

has made elementary education a fundamental right for children in the age group of 6-14 years by providing that “the state shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of six to fourteen years in such manner as the State may, by law, determine”

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Role of International Agencies UNICEF- Research, Reports and public debate ILO- Campaign to prevent child labor, NCLP,

financial support SIDA The Government of Netherlands DFID- Quality of education, Support in AP World Bank- DPEP Support Civil Society Organizations – International

campaigns

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Stop Child Labor Campaign Campaign carried out by Alliance 2015, Network of

European Development Organizations Action plan for companies to combat child labor Focus on all forms of child labor (not only worst forms) Engagement with companies in the global supply chain Combating child labor within broader goals of realizing

labor rights Focus on engagement with multi stake holders including

unions, NGOs and governments

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To Promote Inclusive Education, Indian Experience Required change in attitude of the elite Early understanding that poverty had to be

overcome to ensure universal education Child labor was a necessary evil for

survival Cannot interfere in family life and bring

girls into public life Fear for safety of girls Lack of resource allocation

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Some Significant Barriers- to Ensure Inclusive Education Extreme poverty 18 official languages 29 languages spoken by more than one million

people More than 2000 dialects High levels of child labor Girl children invisible due to bondage at home Remote location of villages/hamlets

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Role of Civil Society in India Making a shift from focus on access to creating

demand Anti child labor campaigns Identifying “missing” girls Community mobilization Mobilization of SHGs Mobilization of local leaders Mobilization of religious leaders Mobilization of Children/girls Mobilizing through street plays, public meetings,

workshop seminars

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Role of Civil Society in India- Contd.. Local state and national networks formed Public debate and lobbying with parliamentarians Women’s movement demand for 6% of the

budget for education, 1995 Beijing conference outcome

Vertical mobilization from the grassroots to international organizations

Millennium Development Goals, Wada Na Todo Campaign

Mid day meal programme in schools (Right to Food)

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Strategy Adult Literacy programmes (failed but created

demand for primary school’s for disadvantaged children)

Night schools for children Part time day schools Summer camps (30 to 45 days) to enroll children

in hostels Back to school programme with residential

bridge schools Demand for government hostels, target SC/ST

boys and girls

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Creating Access Demand for minimum infrastructure

School building Close location of early childhood education centers in

primary schools (brought girls into school) Toilets Drinking water Residential schools for vulnerable children

Demand for Teachers Teacher Training Quality learning material Constant monitoring

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Gramya Experience with Lambada Community Campaign to stop female infanticide and sale of girl

babies for international adoption through community mobilization

Successful advocacy and lobby with state government Identification of out of school children including girls Demand for local schools from the state government Interim schools started with support from CRY handed

over to state government Setting up bridge-school for girls (on going) Link to welfare hostels Need for continuous support to girls and counseling of

family members Up scaling in collaboration with state government, SERP

Programme

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Gramya Experience Integrated approach Prevent violence against women Identify vulnerable families with a large

number of girls Identify all out of school girls and send

them back to school, bridge-schools, government hostels

Stop female infanticide Prevent girl child marriage

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Gramya Experience Contd.. Prevent child labor Identify vulnerable teenagers and send

them back to school Prevent trafficking of girls and women Rights training for adolescent girls Responsibility with women leaders of

SHGs Vertically integrated from the village to the

district level Supervision of school facilities by SHG

leaders (in the process of being set up)

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Vulnerability of Dalit Children/Girls

Practice of untouchability Girls made to clean playground Made to sit at the back of the class Discrimination by teachers Poor quality of food served Poor infrastructure facilities Sexual harassment of girls Alcoholic teachers Response-campaigns to prevent discrimination School committee set up with responsibility to community

leaders

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Who remains out of school?

Girls from extremely poor families/suffering ill health

Orphan girls From shepherd community Migrating parents Girls from large families where household help is

required Older girls who missed primary school Girls from tribal community (others) living in

remote hamlets

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Who remains out of school?

Girls from violent homes Girls with disabilities Children of sex workers Agriculture child labor (picking cotton,

helping the families etc) Girls from Muslim Community (some may

be enrolled in religious schools)

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Quality of Education Issues

Relevance Achieving minimum levels of Learning Assessment through standardized achievements

tests Need to improve achievement, testing

methodology Need for curriculum reforms Restructuring teacher training contents and

methodology

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Quality of Education Issues Contd..

Poor infrastructure Overcrowded class rooms Lack of competency based teaching

learning materials Poor science teaching Poor mathematics teaching Poor language teaching

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Quality of Education Issues Contd..

Poor supervision in educational administration

Unqualified teachers Limited/nil in service training Achievement levels tend to decline as the

children move up in the educational hierarchy