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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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Odense

University.http://static.sdu.dk/mediafiles/Files/Information_til/Studerende_ved_SDU/Din_uddannel

se/Kultur_og_formidling/WorkingPapers/09_ChildhoodAndSocietalMacrostructures%20pdf.pdf

Sectoral Innovation Council on Children’s ParticipationConstituted by the Ministry of Women & Child

Development (2012): Road Map on Innovations for Instituting Mechanisms for Children’s Participation in the

Work of Government of India, vide Notification No.2-17/2011-CW-1 (Unpublished Draft Report).

Hart, Jason(2008): “Children’s Participation and International Development: Attending to the Political.”

International Journal of Children’s Rights 16. 407–418.

International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS) and Macro International(2008):National Family Health

Survey (NFHS-3), India, 2005-06.

Ministry of Human Resources Development, Government of India (2010): Abstract of Selected Educational

Statistics 2009-10.

---- (2008): Selected Educational Statistics 2007-08.