Over 70 pc of girls across India drop out before class 10, reveals survey

A new study about the status of girls in India made some shocking revelations A report titled World of Indiarsquos Girls WINGS the brainchild of Save the Children a nongovernment organisation NGO which was authored by a six member team of Tata Institute of Social Sciences in September 2014 highlights that 702 per cent of girls who enroll in schools across the country drop out before they finish Class 10The TISS study also reveals that lack of toilets discourages girls from attending schoolsIn short nine out of 10 girls who enroll in schools do not complete their education in India The report further highlighted that twice as many girls drop out of schools as compared to boys ldquoThe Material for this study was collected from the 2011 census as well as various other micro studies conducted by the government and other bodies across the worldThe 2011 census revealed a deficit of 71 million girls as against boys in the group of 06 a sizeable increase from 2001 census 6 millionWhile we all know that the status of girls in the country needs to improve the figures in this report clearly show that very little seems to be changingrdquo said Dr Bindulakshmi associate professor at TISS and one of the members of the team behind this reportShe added that while a lot of importance was being given to enrollment of girls in schools very little was being done to retain them ldquoFamily pressure and lack of toilets in schools are two major causes for girls discontinuing their education The issue of girls dropping out of school is much more startling at the higher education levelrdquo she addedWINGS 2014 highlighted issues including gender inequality discrimination against girl child right to education rights that protect children from abuse early marriage as well as measures taken by the government for protection of childrenSkewed sex ratioThe report stressed on how the skewed child sex ratio is still a major concern in our country ldquoDue to various reasons we bear the tragic burden of being a country of disappearing daughtersThe 2011 census revealed a deficit of 71 million girls as against boys in the age group of 06 years which is a sizeable increase from 2001 census 6 million and 1991 census 42 millionrdquo stated the reportIt further added that the common notion that lsquopooruneducated families are more likely to commit female infanticidersquo is being proved wrong over the years The Muslim community with lower social and economic indices has a higher child sex ratiordquo states the reportPeople around the country lauded the implementation of the Right to Education RTE Act in 2009 but till date gender inequality is evident in our education system The Act definitely helped in larger enrollment of girls in schools across all boardsHowever according to data provided by the government in 2012 58 per cent of all private school children in the age group of six14 years were boys Data also indicated that girls with special needs have lesser access to education than their male counterpartsldquoBoys always get a preference over girls This is a known fact and the trend trickles down even when it comes to children with special needs Itrsquos the countryrsquos cultural influences that should be blamed for such trendsrdquo said Dr Mithu Alur founder chairperson of ADAPT Able Disabled All People Together an NGOThe report also highlighted other issues including early child marriage and sexual abuse in the country A study conducted by the Ministry of Women and Child Development in 2007 showed that 453 per cent of the victims were girlsThis report highlights topics that are known but the fact that nothing seems to change in these issues over decades is a bigger problem While working on this report we gained a lot of insight into the major issues affecting the progress of the girl child in the Indiardquo added Dr BindulakshmiThe TISS team made several recommendations in the report The focus was mainly on making current policies about the girl child stringent ldquoItrsquos time to initiate action to put an end to these problemsrdquo added Dr Bindulakshmi