International Day of Girl Child: Child marriages still prevalent in rural areas

International Day of the Girl Child should bring a ray of hope to girls, who have been deprived of education and decent living. Ironically, girls trafficking and child marriages are still prevalent in India in rural areas though governments claiming that they have been striving to curb them. Unfortunately, politicians make statements every year on International Day of the Girl Child and forget about it. It is high time, the governments should wake up from slumber and put an end to the inhuman act.

Hyderabad: International Day of the Girl Child is being celebrated every year on October 11 to recognise girls’ rights and the unique challenges they face around the world. The Day acknowledges the importance, power and potential of adolescent girls by encouraging the opening up of more opportunities for them.

International Day of the Girl Child was first achieved by the Beijing Declaration in 1995 at the World Conference on Women in Beijing. It was the first-ever event to have identified the need for addressing issues faced by adolescent girls around the world. International Day of the Girl Child began as a part of the non-government and international organisation plan. This campaign was designed to nurture girls, especially in developing countries to promote their rights and bring them out of poverty.

Around 33,000 girls are married off every day around the world. An estimated 3,40,000 girls and young women are infected with the virus every year and currently, more than three million girls and young women are living with HIV all over the world. They do more unpaid child labour than boys. Girls between five and 14 spend more than 28 hours doing work, which is twice the time spent by boys.

Over 96% of human trafficked individuals for sexual exploitation are girls and women. Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. Empowering women and girls and promoting gender equality is crucial to accelerating sustainable development. Ending all forms of discrimination against women and girls is not only a basic human right, but it also has a multiplier effect across all other development areas.

The Covid is challenging the critical progress that has been achieved. Up to 10 million girls are at risk of dropping out of secondary school due to the pandemic. Widening gender inequality and increasing poverty is placing female education at greater risk. The gender parity index value--the ratio of girls to boys in education--had long been less than one. In the last couple of years, it has equalised, but the pandemic has increased poverty, reversed migration and job losses --risking school dropouts, particularly for vulnerable girls.

Girls are at greater risk of being deprived of their education as they are pushed towards paid and unpaid labour as well as child marriage in times of crisis. It is likely that many adolescent girls, who stop going to school during the pandemic will never return. Populous states like Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan have lower female literacy rates than the national average. The risk of girls dropping out during the pandemic and ending up in early marriage, pregnancy, trafficking and violence is higher in these states.

In Bihar, lack of school infrastructure has meant longer travel distances to attend school. In Bihar’s poorer regions, the State government had provided bicycles to girls. This led to good results as the number of girls registering for school increased from 1,75,000 to 6,00,000 in four years. But now, schools have been closed for over a year and re-registering those from rural areas is set to become a major challenge.

The challenge now lies with secondary education as the dropout rate of adolescent girls is higher at the secondary level (19.8%) than primary (6.3%). Furthermore, while the net enrolment ratio of girls in elementary schools is 91.58%, it declines as they grow older with 52.57% for secondary and 31.42% for higher secondary. Hence, though a large proportion of girls enrol in primary schools, very few transition to higher classes and complete their school education till class XII.

Adolescence, a period between the ages 10 and 19 years, is a critical stage in every girl’s life marked by a decision to either transition to secondary school, enter into the labour market, or get married. Girls, especially from poorer households, face multiple challenges in completing their education. These barriers are a combination of demand-side and supply-side factors, including economic, household level, school level, and cultural reasons. Understanding and supporting this group is critical to closing the gap in secondary education.

There is now a growing concern that Covid might amplify these barriers and increase the gender gap in education. Girls are at more risk than boys of being discriminated against in terms of access to technology, household chores, and child marriage. Before Covid, India had 30 million out-of-school children, out of which 40% were adolescent girls. It is projected that post-Covid, close to 10 million secondary school girls might drop out and a large number of these can be from India.

Reports of child marriage and sexual abuse have risen by up to 52% in some states in India, as families have lost their livelihood and children--particularly girls--have dropped out of school. In Telangana, authorities intervened to stop 1,355 child marriages between April 2020 and March this year, a 27% increase on the previous year.