Hard life to be a female in my country
"Women constitute half of the population they are the producer of mankind but still they are subjected to various social evils". I believe the weapon of education lets women exterminate the gender bias, deprivation, against denial of chances to the deserving, politics that undermines and society who clip their dreams.
I am beginning to think, I am quite the antithesis of stereotypical boy or Man I am not honourable , brilliant ,rich or charming; neither too strong nor do I have a powerful clan but I'm resolute to be someone, to whom the World Will Look for.
My country is changing, moving ahead in every field possible .A true sign of desire to move ahead is everywhere. While India has made remarkable progress in achieving gender parity in world.
The scenario of my village still projects the picture of old India where education for girls was a mere dream. Due to typical minded orthodox society. Being a boy I felt very blessed by god when I see girls in my locality, who rarely get chance to study. Some who gets it with good fate are not privileged enough to do graduation.
In my village girls belongs to those marginalized groups such as the very poor Or disabled, who are often left behind. While girls attend primary school in roughly half numbers to boys, the gap widens as they get older and more are forced to drop out to help with work at home or get married. Despite much progress, a child without an education is still much more likely to be a girl than a boy.
When I asked elders 'Why they are not given Education' they all had a common answer "girls are expected to contribute to the household" - the implicit understanding being that a girl is being trained for a role as a wife, mother and daughter-in-law, whereas boys are being trained for an occupation as they have to take care of family .
It was the opinion of certain male elders hence, I thought they might be biased towards ladies but I was mum when heard same thing from elderly women. Than too I didn't quit and started meeting and encouraging all those girls who either were not sent to school or dropped out after primary education .In this process came across some harsh stories forward:
Meenu didn't tell her parents when older boys started harassing her on the hour-long walk to school from her home grabbing her hand- because she knew she would get the blame, as if she had somehow encouraged them. She was right: when her family found out, they stopped her schooling.
Deepti is luckier: her mother is determined she will become a doctor. But there are 70 pupils in a class at her school, and teachers often simply don't turn up. The drinking water tanks are so filthy children bring their own water.
Suman 35, is battling for her child's future. When authorities agreed to provide education, but it's only for one day a week. Suman, a domestic help who never went to school herself, wonders if she should have tried to teach her at home: "But if I haven't studied, how much could I do for her?"
The list was endless, but I was persistent with support of my Grandfather. We went to authority and asked their help initially they agreed but result was not satisfactory. So finally with consent of whole village we planned to start school in our own village.
It was not Ordinary school like every school it didn't has roof or boundary hence no location. No teacher only few retired elders. No age limit for student, no curriculum, timetable or anything which could make it look like a school.
We collected fund from whole village and after all efforts we set up a school which was not recognised by any govt. agency but still was serving the purpose. Now it has a building and some volunteers to serve as teacher.
All students at Prerna (inspiration) School, which is particularly built for ladies from poor and uneducated families. It helps girls who had missed out on schooling to make up, and engages with the students' families to discourage child marriage and also give them chance to learn all vocational stuff and earn their living.
Now menu is enjoying her study and her family has dropped the plan of marriage and are supporting her. Deepti is too in third standard and her mother is also attending vocational training classes. Finally suman's dream of education for her child has come true and helping school to cook meals for children, learning simultaneously.
BY. Prasoon
