Post on 14-May-2023
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Paving new paths – Adolescent Girls and their Aspirations for Education
Shantha Sinha
1. Introduction
The predicament of girls in contemporary India remains precarious especially
among the poor and marginalized communities. The country’s mean years of schooling
is only 5.12 years which is well below countries such as China at 8.17 years, Brazil at
7.54 years and significantly below all developing countries at 7.09 years1. They are
educationally backward with the dropout rate of girls up to class 8 at 41.0% and up to
class 10 at 47.9%2 and after class 10 at 66%3. The educational attainment of girls
belonging to the scheduled caste and scheduled tribe communities is even lower. Their
health records show that 56% are anemic and 47% are undernourished. 52.1% of girls
are married even before they are 18 years of age and are subject to abuse, ill-health, and
loss of esteem. Once out of school, they are denied the choices and opportunities that
come with education. Instead, they are part of the work force in the informal sector,
mostly on non-wage family work and their fate is sealed. All these factors are fairly well
known and gender discrimination in the Indian context has been written about and
captured by innumerable studies.
This article attempts to construct the endeavor of girls to seek higher education
and extricate themselves from drudgery of work and exploitation by exercising agency4
1Chapter on Education, Twelfth Five Year Plan (2012–2017), Social Sectors, Volume III, Planning Commission,
Government of India p.48. http://planningcommission.gov.in/plans/planrel/12thplan/pdf/12fyp_vol3.pdf 2 Statistics of School education 2010-2011 (as on 30Th September 2010) , Government of India Ministry of Human
Resource Development, Bureau of Planning, Monitoring & Statistics, New Delhi 2012,p.65 http://mhrd.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/SES-School_201011_0.pdf 3National Family Health Survey (NFHS-3), India, 2005-06. 4The article draws on the definition of agency from Mustafar and Mische (1998). Human agency is
defined ‘as a temporally embedded process of social engagement, informed by the past (in its habitual
aspect), but also oriented toward the future (as a capacity to imagine alternative possibilities) and toward
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in defiance of power structures and authority. It is based on video interviews with 30
girls who pursued their education, enabled by the M.V.Foundation5. While transcribing
the interviews one could interpret the words spoken by the girls but not the pauses and
the silences between the sentences, the unspoken gestures, intensity of their expression,
tears that rolled recalling their experiences, and the quick recovery while narrating their
successes after trials and tribulations. All these girls are in the age group of 18-22 years,
from the rural areas in Ranga Reddy and Nalgonda6 districts whose parents are non-
literates and have been involved in farm work as casual labourers and sometimes as
bonded labourers. They are mostly from the scheduled caste community.
2. About M.V.Foundation’s Child Defenders
It is important to provide an overview of M.V.Foundation (MVF) and the context
in which girls were able to exercise agency before delving into their lives, their work
profiles, daily routines and so on. MVF has been able to enroll over a million children
into schools, most of whom were erstwhile child labourers or victims of early child
marriage, through a process of social mobilization and engagement of the poor with the
system. It is a process of preparing the system to respond to the poor and build their
faith in public institutions. More importantly, the Foundation works on the
understanding that there is an inextricable link between abolishing child labour and the
enrolment of children in schools and that poor parents are willing to send their children
to schools given an enabling environment.
The key actors in reaching out to children are the local youth most of whom are
first generation learners who know that their very act of going to school has integrated
them into a web of interaction, encouraging them to utilize the modes of thinking and the present (as a capacity to contextualize past habits and future projects within the contingencies of the
moment’.hu 5 M.V.Foundation is a registered Trust in India that has insisted on elimination of child labour through a process of ensuring that every child attends full time formal school. See www.mvfindia.in 6 Districts of Ranga Reddy and Nalgonda are characterised by dry land agriculture, with low literacy rates and a population dependent on agriculture and farming activities. Some areas of Ranga Reddy district that have a proximity to Hyderabad city are semi-urban with lands of the poor being sold away to urban speculators.
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pursuit of knowledge that values human rights. They are able to transcend their local
environs and locate themselves in the context of a larger reality, informed by a sense of
the society and its complex milieu.
Armed with self confidence and passion for child rights, the child defenders talk
to parents and build trust. Simultaneously, they contact political leaders, opinion
makers, school teachers, and members of gram panchayats, and women’s groups to
convince them to support their endeavor to abolish child labour and bring every child
to school. Through one-on-one interaction, group discussions, mass rallies, street
theatre and public meetings, they generate public debate and discourse on child rights
making it a talking point at bus stops, weddings and wakes, temples and private
functions, while fetching water and fuel wood or at farms and work places. Indeed, the
child defenders make it a point to see that children become centre stage in a village and
its consciousness.
As they challenge the system that has fostered inequality for many generations,
the child defenders bear many risks to themselves. They learn how to negotiate with
the community and show tolerance and magnanimity even towards the most difficult
employers and recalcitrant parents so that child labourers can eventually become
students. It is in the process of resolving a conflict that a consensus on children’s rights
begins to emerge, new traditions and cultures get grounded and children became
visible.
The child defenders befriend children who are out of school-- boys and girls for
whom education had not even been in the realm of possibility-- and give them the
courage to join the Residential Bridge Courses (RBC) before being mainstreamed into
formal schools. The RBC focuses on building confidence among children that they too
can read and write and join schools. Children mainstreamed into schools are followed
up through local community initiative facilitated by the child defenders. Many girls
availed the facility of the social welfare hostels that were established by the Andhra
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Pradesh government and stayed there until completion of class 10. In spite of the
unfavorable condition of the hostels, children prefer these to being at home and risk
slipping back into the labour force or marriage. They have also been admitted into the
more prestigious and competitive residential schools set up for scheduled caste children
like the Andhra Pradesh Social Welfare Residential Schools ( APSWREIS), Kasturba
Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya ( KGBV)7 and the Gurukul Pathashala. Several of them have
also benefited from the scholarships of the Andhra Pradesh Social Welfare department
although obtaining these scholarships involves a highly cumbersome application
process that requires minute details of the academic history of the child! It has been
found that post class 10, hostel facilities are scant, there is no free education and
scholarships are tough to get, making it difficult for the girls to continue their
education. During this entire period girls have sought help from MVF to survive in the
education system.
Every girl admitted to the RBC came only after she threw a tantrum at home and
fought for her right to education. At times these girls come without parental consent.
This was not encouraged by the child defenders; yet, they would not ask the child to
return home after taking a historical step on a new path. Consequently, they make
every effort to reintegrate the child with her family in the full faith that this dissonance
with the family is only temporary. They have been proved right as parents slowly begin
to accept this unfamiliar circumstance and are even proud about their child’s
attainment when they perform and show their determination to study.
They are the change makers for their community that has been trapped for
generations in immobility, poverty and illiteracy. They show that even for the poor,
things can be different and better.
3. Work, violence and aspiration to study- girls in rural Telengana
7 There are 3600 KGBVs in 27 States and Union Territories in India, but since in most states they cater to girls only up to class 8 this has resulted in the girls discontinuing their education after class 8.
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Birth of a girl is seldom welcome in a rural society among families of daily wage
earners, marginal peasants, migrant labour, those working in the informal sector and
those dependent on casual work. The patriarchal values and norms get further
reinforced in the daily practices of familial life as well as economic activity. Thus a girl
grows up to fit the roles of submissive daughter and mother, and that of a worker in
self-abnegation. Even as she grows she is constantly nudged to behave in a manner that
moulds her into a good and capable daughter-in-law. She is socialized to accept
violence and abuse at home and work place and never to raise her voice in protest, to
accept discrimination and never to question the family’s preference for boys, to be the
first one to wake up and the last one to eat.
Girls’ work begins with their induction into girls’ domestic chores of fetching
water, fuel wood, taking care of siblings, cooking and cleaning and washing, doing the
same work repetitively with deadly monotony. By the time they are 10 years old they
graduate to work on farms in the production of rice, wheat, cereals, vegetables, cotton
and mirchi and other agricultural commodities. Their pain and suffering is enormous as
they inhale the fumes of endosulpha, methonyl and other deadly pesticides that shrink
their lungs, make them dizzy and cause mental depression. Their skin peels and sores
form on their feet and hands when they dig in wet mud for hours and they suffer
headaches after carrying loads of bananas, vegetables and food. Many of them journey
to unfamiliar places in overcrowded trucks, tractors and trains to harvest soya bean,
sugarcane, food crops, oil seeds and cotton as migrant labourers, sometimes alone or
with their families. They take the responsibility of tending to goats and cattle at a very
young age and walk through the undergrowth in all seasons, in scorching heat or rain
that comes without any warning. They work as domestic labourers enduring a life of
loneliness, out of their cosmos.
Mybamma remembers her childhood as a worker on farms plucking cotton,
digging into the soil under a strong sun, taking care of her younger brother and walking
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long distances barefoot to farms in the neighboring villages with five or six of her
friends as contractual labourers. She recalls, ‘we were quickly hidden under the bushes
when MVF volunteers came to inspect the farm for child labour. I then wondered who
these persons were and why the employers were so afraid of them. Eventually, we got
to know that they were from MVF and were friends of children. They could help us get
out of work and into schools…I could not imagine that this could be true. I got restless
and wanted to do no more work. I must study, I said to myself. Everybody is talking
about girls and education. My parents predictably said no, we cannot afford your
education. I protested and for three days did not eat, cried and became a nuisance. My
father had to take me to the MVF camp and admit me there8.
The hardship and suffering of their parents especially that of their mothers
weighs on many girls, curbing their dreams and resigning them to a fate without
aspirations. Naomi states, ‘I never saw my mother take any rest. She worked and
worked endlessly, was abused by father at home, employer at work place, how could I
abandon her? But I asked myself if I had to live like this all my life? 9
3.1 Ill-health--Pressure to Work
Ill-health in the family, especially of the mother, can be very devastating.
Nagalakshmi and her elder sister discontinued school in class 3 and 5 respectively
because their mother had heart surgery. The family incurred huge debts and so the girls
were compelled to work in the cotton and ‘mirchi’ farms. She said, ‘I wanted to study
all along while at work. I missed school but when I saw my mother’s health condition
and the loans the family took out to get her better, there was no other alternative’.
88 Interview with Mybamma. She is a Village Revenue Officer (VRO) serving in the government. 9 Naomi is working as a nurse after completing her nurse’s training program. She is determined to be a doctor once she earns enough to be able to pay for her medicine course.
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On many occasions Neelamma felt sad that she dropped out of school in class 7
as her mother had a major surgery. She had to run the house, take care of her brother,
earn wages doing farm work, and tend to cattle. She tried hard to study on her own
during her spare time. But she said, ‘where was the spare time? I knew it was just
impossible to study at home all by myself. I need to go out.’ Determined to find a
solution she began her enquiries about the prospect of getting back to school. She was
unrelenting in her efforts to gather information fromfriends, relatives, shopkeepers,
whoever she met. It was then that she heard about the MVF camp, and tracked the MVF
volunteer, got her phone number and spoke at length with her. ‘I failed to convince my
parents and so joined the camp against their wishes. I was boycotted by them and
nobody would speak to me. Yet I visited home every month for one whole year. In the
process I convinced a friend of mine, who never went to school before, to join the camp.
I got a seat in the KGBV and scored good marks in class 10. I wanted to be a doctor but
could not afford it. Now I am studying to be a teacher and simultaneously working as a
part-time reporter for the Sakshi newspaper’.
3.2 Aspiration to study
Some girls enviously watchedtheir peers in the neighborhood go to school but
dared not even mention the subject of education to their parents knowing full well that
they would be snubbed and reprimanded. Some of them, however, did try in their own
fashion to express their desire to attend school. While taking care of her sister’s
children, Adilaxmi10 says, ‘I was the youngest of five sisters. I saw many of my friends
wear school uniforms and go to school and asked my father several times to send me to
school. My father said we have to work as we were all girls and I had to soon start
earning for my dowry11.
10 Since the girls wanted their stories to be told and had no objection to stating their names, their real names have been retained. 11 Interview with Adilaxmi.
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This is true in the case of Anita as well. Since the age of 5, she spent her time
taking care of her sister’schildren while they all moved from one work site to the other,
traveling long distances as migrant labourers. ‘While I worked from dawn to dusk
without any respite I was often scolded for no reason and they did not even give me
food. I went hungry all the time. My brother in law was drunk every evening; beat up
my sister and all of us too. My sister took all her frustration out on me and would beat
me up all the time. But I felt sorry for her and kept quiet. I lived a harsh life all my
childhood. After 4 or 5 years of working I told my mother that I did not want to work
for my sister. She would not yield and was very angry with me. I retorted that if only
father were alive he would have supported me. That I disobeyed her hurt her a lot.
When once I came home I saw youth volunteers pleading with some parents in the
neighborhood to send us to schools. I knew my mother would object and so I joined the
MVF camp without letting her know’.
Almost every girl mentioned how she felt excluded because she was not in
schools and did not have school bags or wore school uniforms.
3.3First born---additional responsibilities
The responsibilities of work are compounded many times over if the girl is a first
born. ‘To be the eldest daughter in the family is a curse’ says Krishnaveni. ‘We are
bound to work and have no time for self. I felt bad when my siblings and all my peers
were in school. I developed a complex and I condemned myself as having ill-luck. I
tried attending night school but was so tired after working at home and in the farm that
I soon gave up. But then the MVF volunteers came --singing songs, holding meetings,
talking to each and every family. Once when a street play was over, I was so inspired, I
caught a volunteer’s hand and said to him, ‘Sir, please take me with you to the camp. I
want to study.’
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Vijaya too, who was the eldest in her family said, “What kind of a life have I led
as a child. I worked at home, worked outside, and was treated like a servant at home
and by my employer. I went to the city as a domestic servant; it was horrible. I wasted
my life. When I refused to work at home my father beat me up and mother said ‘you
have become headstrong; who gave you this authority to question us?’ My younger
brothers and sister all went to school. They would chant A for Apple, B for…I asked
them what this ‘for for’ meant? They ridiculed and poked fun at me for asking them
these questions. I felt hurt when they said you are daft and you don’t have to know
this”12.
Niharika was only 10 years old when her parents died and she along with her
sister and brother went to live with their uncle. He promptly discontinued their
schooling and engaged them as child labour and exploited them as domestic child
labourers. ‘We were ill treated, beaten up and many a time had to go hungry. My
brother could not take this violence and ran away from home. I also attempted suicide
and that day a friend rescued me from jumping into a well. I was sent off to work as
domestic child labour. I used to cry a lot all night while at work13. When Niharika came
home for a break from domestic work in the city she heard about the MVF camp. Both
she and her sister escaped from her uncle and without telling anyone joined the MVF
camp. This step was a ‘life changer’ for her and her sister, says Niharika. ‘The whole
world has changed for us. From one used ‘lehanga’( skirt ) and blouse we had school
uniforms and now decent clothes’. Niharika has done her M.Sc in Organic Chemistry
and wanted to go abroad for her PhD. but decided not to as she has to support her sister
to complete her graduation. Both of them work part time at the DTDC Couriers.
As we have seen, there is no safety netfor children, no way outof joining the
labour force or enduring hardship and exploitation, child marriage, becoming victims
12 Vijaya is now doing her Masters Course in English language. 13 Niharika is studying M.Sc. in Organic Chemistry.
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of violence and all forms of abuse in the family and at work place, ill-health, depression,
loneliness and even suicide. There is a dearth of institutional support. Their families
too live precariously untouched by any kind of social security measures, labour laws,
and State obligation towards their well-being, resulting in gross violation of human
rights. Despite an indifferent deficit State and its structural challenges,
childrenthemselves take control of their destinies and show courage in the face of odds
to transform their lives through education.
3.4Against child marriage
The pursuance of education for a girl until completion of class 10 and even more
is a herculean task. Perhaps this is true for boys as well, but they do not have to explain
all the time about why they need to study further. It is the clarity of purpose and
rejection of the past in totality that gives these girls the strength to withstand the family
pressure to get married. As narrated by Parvati, ‘Soon after I completed class 10, my
parents refused to allow me to study and put pressure on me to get married. They
insisted that I ease their burden and not delay any more. When I protested and told
them clearly that I have decided to study further, they relented and I joined the
Teacher’s Education Programme.’14
Nagalakshmi pleaded with her parents and told them that she would not want to
be in the same plight as her married sister whose education was discontinued by an
early marriage. ‘Please let me study and do not spoil my life… I begged my parents
and when I promised them that I will pay for my education they stopped all discussion
on marriage’
With the death of her mother and her father’s subsequent remarriage, life was
not the same for Parvati, a 10 year old child studying in 5th class. She was forced to
discontinue school at class 7 and work as an agricultural labourer and soon after her
marriage was fixed she said, ‘I opposed my marriage and told my father that I wanted
14 Interview with Adilaxmi.
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to study. I was scolded and beaten up for defying elders and he forcibly got me married
and packed me off to my in-laws. I was miserable there and in a month’s time came
home as it was shravana maasam.15 I pressed again for breaking off the marriage and
went to my grandmother’s house. I did not eat or speak and sulked. My father and step
mother beat me up. I found out about MVF from friends and its campaign against child
marriages. One day I ran away from home to the camp saying no to violence, hatred,
and lack of humanity. There was a lot of pressure and my father came to the camp to
threaten me. I did not give up and said that I would come if I feel like only after I am 18
years old. I wanted to take charge of my life and thus wanted my marriage to be
terminated legally. I got a divorce when I was in class 10 with the help of MVF. I am
now learning to work on computers and not yet in college’.16
Lalita dropped out of school when she was in class 5 to help at home and take
care of her younger brothers. She worked as a domestic child labourer and ‘every
morning I had to do the same chores--wash clothes, mop the floor, scrub pots and pans,
and when I went home I plucked cotton, worked on farms and even ploughed with the
bullocks. I had no rest. I wanted to go to school like my younger brothers but could not
tell my parents. When I heard about the campaign against child labour and that I too
could dream of going to school, I told my parents to send me to the camp. They resisted
and so I had to run away from home. They reconciled to my defiance after I completed
my 10th class but have begun to put pressure on me to get married. I told them firmly
that I must study and stand on my own feet. Until then there is no question of getting
married. My parents have stopped asking me to get married.’
Swapna and her two younger sisters worked all day; ‘we tended to cattle and
goats, cleaned the cowshed, cooked, fetched water and fuel wood, did sowing,
15 Parvati did a course in computers and is in search of a job. During the month of ‘shravana masam’ which is mostly in the month of August newly married girls are sent to their mother’s home as it is considered inauspicious to have a conjugal relationship. 16 Interview with Parvati.
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weeding, harvesting of crops. I began to work on farms when I was 9 years old while
my two younger brothers went to school. My older brother was pledged as bonded
labour. My parents felt I was getting old (at 11 years) and started to look for a match. I
felt sad and did not want to get married and wondered how to get out of this quagmire.
I fought with my parents, pleaded with them, and cried, asking them not to get me
married. If only I were in school I felt that things would have been different. It was at
this juncture that I came across MVF and heard about the RBC. I told my mother that I
wanted to study. She argued a lot and said that studying now was ridiculous when I
was old enough to get married and that they had already proceeded far in finding a
match for me. I rebelled against them and joined the camp. They fought with me and
the camp staff constantly but I stood strong’. It is her education in the camp that gave
her courage to take strong stands. She saved her older brother, who had a very
unhappy married life, from an attempt at suicide. She took care of her younger brother
in the hospital who died recently. She is an anti-child labour activist and wants to fight
injustice, poverty and suffering around her17.
It is not just the girls who have resisted marriage. At times even the parents have
had to confront peer pressure. K. Anita‘s father died and as a single woman her mother
had to take care of a large family. She sent her sons to school but she and her sister
assisted their ailing mother. During the campaign her mother was easily persuaded by
MVF to send her daughters to the camp. With their mother’s support Anita has
completed her B.Pharm and wants to do a post-graduate degree in Pharmacy. Her sister
is working on her undergraduate degree. She says, ‘All our relatives and the
community constantly ask my mother about why we were not getting married and she
snubs them that it is none of their business. She is very proud of us.’
When children know that they have allies in the adults who are willing to vouch
for them and take up their cause, they pick up courage to defy authority. In a way, even
17 Swapna is doing her B.Com and would like to become a lawyer.
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while an enabling environment is created by adults, the success of a rescued child
depends largely on the child’s innate strength. Anchoring on the slightest ray of hope
they take courage to say ‘no’ to child marriage or forced labour. They use the weapons
they have--sulks, tears, slowing down on domestic work- to win their battles for
education. It is a defining moment for them. It is their determination and unrelenting
pressure on the parents that motivates even these adults to take a firm stand as well.
These brave girls, as young as 8 years, are the pioneer heroes of modern India paving
the way for future generations of children in the country. Ultimately, the successful
accomplishment of the right to education is based on each child’s act of defiance and
the institutionalized support of the community as well as the preparedness of the
system.
3.5 Why residential programs for girls?
It is difficult to foresee how such girls could have exercised agency if they did
not have a space to seek shelter and safety. The MVF’s bridge course camps served this
purpose initially, but several of them continued their education with the help of the
residential schools and hostels that the Andhra Pradesh state had set up through its
social welfare and education departments.18 Niharika says, ‘I knew I would be taken
care of in the MVF camp. This gave me courage to run away from hell’.
Lalita said, ‘For the first time in my life I danced, sang songs, played, made
friends and enjoyed myself. The camp and its teachers was everything to me’.
Meena said, ‘I left behind drudgery, violence, my mother’s anger and frustration
to get me married when I joined MVF camp. Why were people in the camp so
different? They were patient, loving, caring, and never got angry,. The teachers
18 During the year 2010-2011 there were 1447 hostels for scheduled castes and backward castes with 142825 children of whom 40920 are girls. There are also 216 social welfare hostels and 263 ashram shalas for schedule tribe children in the State of Telengana Source: Commissioner of Social Welfare, Govt of Andhra Pradesh (2011) http://www.apdoes.org/publications/Statistical%20Abstract,%20Andhra%20Pradesh%20-%202011.pdf
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clippedour nails, washed our hair, picked lice and slept with us. They did more than
my mother ever did! I want to become a teacher and share knowledge19.’
All the girls who came to the camps resisted their families, norms and values of
the society they were embedded in, and rejected the daily routines of work, exploitation
and severe hardships, violence and abuse. Understandably, they have strong feelings of
repressed anger against perceived or actual injustice and a deep seated resentment
towardsthe oppressive society.
Living in a residential program gives girls a sense of oneness and belonging
especially when they share and understand that there are huge similarities in their
experiences. They learn through peer interaction and draw courage from one another.
The residential environment helps in their struggle to develop coherent self- identity
and positive self-esteem. Even as they are discovering themselves through songs,
theater, dance, group discussions about their environs, they are exposed to ideas and
thought processes of the world outside. This gives them strength to negotiate and wade
through barriers –cultural, social, economic and political.
While MVF prepared girls to get them to school it also gave them the confidence
to be away from home, join the government hostels and residential schools and seek
new paths. Thus most girls interviewed moved from the camp to hostel until
completion of class 10 examination. After completion of class 7 through MVF’s bridge
course Geeta qualified for the prestigious ‘Gurukul20’ school but the school Principal
discouraged her from joining the school. ‘I had to plead with her, touched her feet and
asked her not to push me out. I thought if I stayed at home and studied my education
would be ruined. I was so relieved when she finally gave in after MVF volunteer
warned that he would lodge a complaint against her. I scored the highest marks in class
10.’
19 Meena is now a school teacher. 20 Gurukuls are residential schools of the social welfare department for meritorious students who qualify through an entrance examination.
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As mentioned above, as there were no adequate government hostels after class
10 it became difficult for girls to study further. The college fees, the costs of education
material, transportation costs were high. Girls had to perforce work and study.
3.6 Post class 10- a continuous battle
Even if one were to defy family and go ahead with education there were several
other hurdles that the girls had to face. In the instance of Adilaxmi she was allowed to
study post class 10 and her grandmother was to live with her, to make sure that the
grandchild was safe. ’But my grandmother would be a nuisance’ she said. ‘She was
drunk most of the time, did no household work, always shouted at me and disturbed
me when I was at home. It was only after she slept that I stepped out of my hut on the
pavement to study’. She undertook tutoring jobs to make extra money to cover her
living expenses. During the entire course she could afford only one note-book. Yet she
completed her course and is employed as a school teacher in a government school.
When Nagalakshmi was allowed to do her teachers training course, she had to
work as an agricultural labourer and do domestic work during all her free time. It was
only in the second year that the course load became heavy as she had to prepare
records, education material for demonstration classes and even bribe the private schools
to let her do the demonstration lectures. ‘I found that I had to compete with my peers
on all fronts. They could take an auto-rickshaw to reach the schools but I had to walk 7-
8 kms and was always tired while teaching the children. I had to ask MV Foundation
for help especially for books and stationery in the second year. Even after all this effort I
could not qualify as a school teacher and lost by 2 marks. I am preparing again and
hope to succeed this time.’
Lalita says,‘I completed class 10, but get no support from the family to pursue
higher level of education. I do not know of any government facilities. I attend college
for only 4-5 days a week and work on other days’.
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Vijaya struggled hard after class 10. At times she was a daily wage earner;
sometimes she worked as a domestic servant to make ends meet and study further. She
often went hungry, and had no energy either to work or to study, yet completed her
Intermediate and even got a gold medal for having stood first in her school. After that
she took the teacher training test and earned a 92% score and is simultaneously
preparing for her MA in English. She survives on part time tutoring jobs which fetch
her Rs. 3000/- a month.
For Geeta, a 13-year-old girl who never went to school, there was no looking
back after she joined the MVF camp. She says with dignity and pride, ‘I did very well in
school and was always at the top of my class even as I took care of my mother who was
really unwell. As I had to work, I found it difficult to concentrate on studies. I was
determined to pursue school and not give up. The real challenge was during my final
examination when my father fell very ill. I had to make a choice. Should I be at my
mother’s side and stay with her to take care of him or take my examination seriously? I
decided to be with my parents. I felt I could always take an examination but I would
not forgive myself if I were not with my father when he wanted me. My father died. I
repeated my exam and did very well. I am hoping to be a school teacher21.’
Balamani lives on the streets as her family was thrown out of the house due to a
property dispute after her father’s death. On the streets, they lived along a drain and
the drain water of the entire street would flood their floor. But this was the only place
nobody would evict them from. She was different from her siblings as she was
determined to study, ‘but mother had no confidence and was reluctant to face the
school teacher.’ This is when the MVF persuaded her mother and got Balamani to
school. Balamani is now in her 12th grade and has a tough routine. She works as a
domestic servant in two houses before she goes to college and often misses classes to do
‘coolie’ work, and during agriculture season works as a farm servant. ‘Whenever I
21 Geeta is a school teacher.
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needto buy books, pay exam fees, wear better clothes I simply have to work. I am now
working hard to help my mother repay a loan on a chit fund which she took outat a
high rate of interest. My dream is to live in a decent house and win the appreciation of
my kith and kin that I did all this without my father’.
4. Child Participation- Structure and Agency
The stories of such young girls are stories of what constitutes child participation.
Article 12 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) provides that the State
shall give serious consideration to children’s views in all matters affecting the child and
give due weight in accordance with the age and maturity of the child sincechildren are
recognised as rights holders and ‘active citizens’ by the United Nations Convention on
the Rights of the Child. Consequently, several organisations working with children
insist that voices of children be heard and taken cognisance of by the State and this has
been through a process of ‘child participation’. It is envisaged that through participation
children acquire skills to influence decision making and the decisions of the State are
enriched. 22For the first time in India the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17) mentions the need
for institutionalization of children’s participation by incorporating children’s views into
mainstream policy and programme formulation processes.
Fostering child participation acquired importance over time with several
initiatives of the state governments. For example, there is a provision in the Goa
Children’s
Act (2005) to constitute Village Child Committees (VCCs) by every village panchayat
and municipal council wherein a child above the age of 15 years is to be included.23In
Tamil Nadu, children's sanitation committees were set up but they had to be
disbandedbecause Dalit students were made to clean the toilets. In the Krishnagiri
district of Tamil Nadu, Bal Panchayats (Children’s Councils) were constituted wherein
22Hart, Jason (2008). 23Section 13 (8) and 13 (9) of the Goa Children’s Act ( 2005).
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children are encouraged to bring up issues such as caste and class-based discrimination,
child marriages, child labour, retention of children in schools, water and sanitation
facilities and practice of hygiene in their communities and schools and how they can
help address them and develop action plans24. The more recent program is the Bal
Sabhas (Children’s Neighborhood Groups) of the Kerala government under
Kudumbashree, the Poverty Eradication Mission of the Government of Kerala. It began
as a pilot project in 140 panchayats (10 per district), and later on replicated across the
state. This has been successful in building children’s awareness on matters concerning
their rights and giving them a voice to raise questions regarding the gaps on the system.
Even in the NGO sector with support mainly from UNICEF, children’s clubs
were set up in different parts of the country which are either community based or
school-based children’s clubs that serve as platforms for engaging children, enabling
them to express their views on matters concerning them and also on public facilities.
The more active among them are the Meena Manches in 40,000 upper primary schools
and Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas (KGBVs) with 800,000 adolescent girls (ages 11-
18 years) as members in Uttar Pradesh. Children are encouraged to discuss issues such
as school dropouts, education, health and sanitation, early marriage and dowry, and
also their hopes and aspirations.
The Child Reporters’ Initiative (CRI) began in 2005 as an experiment in engaging
children in the 10-14 years age group chosen from 10 schools, as media reporters by the
People’s Group for Children’s Development (PGCD). However, itrapidly grew in
popularity and size from two blocks of Koraput district in Odisha to 632 schools in all
the 14 blocks and 4 urban areas in the district25.
24The Bal Panchayats function under the guidance of Neighbourhood Community Network (NCN) with support from UNICEF. 25Sectoral Innovation Council on Children’s Participation (Unpublished: 2012), Ministry of Women &
Child Development.
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Most such initiatives are amongst children of poor communities and the dalits,
giving them a space to voice their grievances, question lack of facilities, and suggest
ways and means of improving them. In such circumstances there is a sense of a
collective where children do enjoy their new found strength. At times such
participation could be construed as tokenism where children are heard by adults in a
patronising manner and parents are proud observers of their children’s performance.
Further, children’s participation is often not taken to its logical conclusion especially
when difficult issues such as caste, child labour, child marriage, abuse and exploitation
are questioned. Thus, while a child may be inspired to take some independent step in
favour of her rights, she may not actually plunge into action as there are no support
groups among the community that are sensitive and have the courage to stand by her or
who could offer her security and shelter or residential programs. It is therefore
important that such programmes anticipate some resistance and take steps to protect
children.
5. Conclusion
Getting girls to school is possible in spite of patriarchal values and gender
discrimination, illiteracy and impoverishment, extreme vulnerabilities and risks. It is a
battle against norms and attitudes at the family and societal level determined by
practices that are unfair and unjust to children. Given the limited framework of
thinking and doing things, the attitude of the poor households towards girls intheir
practice of gender discrimination andearly marriage is perceived by them as a
responsibility that offers security and safety to girls, totally unmindful of the pain they
inflict on children. This attitude is reinforced and guided by a larger social norm that
has no expectation of the poor and education of their children. Neither is there an
enlightened elite consensus that pressures the State to take steps to stop violence on
children once and for all.
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Except for raising an alarm once in a while when the abysmal statistics of girls
regarding sex ratio, trafficking, education, child marriage or malnutrition is publicized
there is no further action by the State. Action, if any, targets building of awareness
among girls about their reproductive health but never addresses the core issues of State
deficit in relation to children’s entitlements to education26, strong institutional processes
and accountability, sustained campaign and building enabling environment and
empowering girls to exercise agency. This indifference of State and society, according to
Qvortrup, is not deliberate but ‘one of structural side effects of societal development27’
While the causes for inaction may be explained through structural unpreparedness the
method of breaking status quo is not to wait until structural changes occur.
Given this context of State deficit,the emphasis of this article is on children who,
in their acts of defiance, have valiantly fought to access the system, its programs and
policies, schools, hostels, residential spaces, scholarships and pursued education. It
shows how, in spite of structural challenges such as poverty, ill-health, lack of
infrastructure and support systems and institutions, children have taken the courage to
overcome barriers. In a way it shows that while structural issues are necessarily huge
challenges they are not insurmountable.
The localized actions of the girls who were interviewed are an example of their
immense desire to study and their readiness to compete for equality and justice even in
absence of social norms and very limited State. Such an endeavor has the potential for
informed policies towards a more inclusive and democratized system of education.
Thus, fostering the action of girls to exercise agency too is as important as focusing on
structural changes under such circumstances.
However, as mentioned earlier, the issue of exercising agency is not the same as
child participation as practiced by several civil society organizations and even state
26 See World Bank (2009); Ramachandran and Jandhyala (2010); Population Council and UNICEF (2013). 27Qvortrup Jens (1999).
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sponsored programs in contemporary India. It is, first of all, an individual action of
defiance supported by a conscious community support in favor of children and their
rights. In this act of defiance there are contentious issues in terms of division of labour
within the family and adjustments that are to be made with girls no longer being
available for either wage or non-wage work. Additional expenditures are incurred for
meeting the costs of education that becomes dearer as one goes for higher education;
consequently, the decision of who should take on the burden for such costs and the
nature of sacrifice involved and many more such details are to be resolved. Several such
issues are seemingly micro- and local but they do expose larger structures of economy
and politics of development and priorities of the State. Thus a simple act of saying no to
one’s past and charting a new path disturbs the equilibrium and has implications for
radicalizing society.
Hopefully, with the right to education of all children and girls until they
complete higher secondary school education, early marriages, abuse and unwanted
pregnancies, trafficking and forced labour and all other inhuman practices would soon
become part of an unbelievable past, effaced from memory as if they never happened.
The new set of traditions, cultures and values based onrespect, dignity, equity and
justice for children captures the imagination of one and all and would eventually bring
transformation in all our lives.
References
World Bank (2009): Secondary Education in India: Universalizing Opportunity (Washington, DC),
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2009/01/10567129/secondary-education-
indiauniversalizing-opportunity-vol-1-2.
---- (2004): Gender disparity in schooling, in attaining the Millennium Development Goals in India (New Delhi),
http//siteresources.worldbank.org/INTINDIA/resource/Gender/Disparity in schooling.pdf.
Ramachandran, V. and K. Jandhyala (2010):Secondary Education for Girls in India, Unpublished paper for
the MacArthur Foundation.
Population Council and UNICEF (2013):Adolescents: A desk review of existing evidence and behaviours,
programmes and policies(New Delhi).
Qvortrup, Jens (1999):“Childhood and Societal Macrostructures: Childhood Exclusion by
Default”,Working Paper 9, Child and Youth Culture, The Department of Contemporary Cultural Studies
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University.http://static.sdu.dk/mediafiles/Files/Information_til/Studerende_ved_SDU/Din_uddannel
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