The glass ceiling preventing women from becoming equal partners of men starts at home. A recently released report of the National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) reveals shocking [my italics] discrimination by families against girls on the issue of their education. This attitude continues outside too, and prevents women from getting remunerative work, or equal wages.
The denial of education to girls begins early within the families, the survey found. Between the ages of 5 and 14 years, over 15% of girls had never attended school, and 5% had dropped out after enrolment. So, one in five girls is already out of school by the time she is 14 years old. Among boys, this proportion is less — 11% never attend school and only 4% drop out.
This gap widens as the children grow up. Between the ages of 15 and 19 years, nearly 17% of girls had never attended any educational institution compared to about 9% boys and, over 41% of girls who had been attending, dropped out compared to less than 38% boys.
Thus, it goes on with each passing year — as more and more children drop out, the proportion of girls in those categories is always larger. But why is this happening?
The survey asked for reasons and got some jaw-dropping [my italics] answers. Among girls, the two major reasons given for never attending school were — education not considered necessary by family (27%), and doing domestic duties (18%).
This article was nestled in with several others in a TOI section on Women at Work the day after Women’s Day. I don’t understand why this author so stunned by really ordinary attitudes held by many that girls’ education (and as mentioned later, women’s paid employment) is not more important than their household work. After all, the author himself might be trying to cover up this mentality by pretending to be so surprised!
Why can’t the daughters go out and earn for their families? In part, it is the mentality that they should remain homebound — but society not providing equal opportunities to the girl-child is also a big factor. The NSSO survey found that women’s participation in the workforce is still only 28%. Even those who get work, face discrimination in terms of wage-disparity — women casual labourers get Rs.38 a day while men get Rs.59, in rural areas.
In urban areas, the gap is wider, with women getting Rs.45 and men getting Rs.81 a day. Even among regular employees, women get 40% less than men in rural areas and about 25% less in urban areas. The entrenched tradition of treating women as second class citizens stretches right from the threshold of the family to the broader society outside.
