Education is an essential for any human being, irrespective of gender.
In India, many are oblivious to how the education of the girl child can change lives for the better. It is a sad state of affairs when people across socio-economic strata think that investing in a girl child’s education is a waste of money. The fact that they would instead justify spending on their daughter’s marriage costs or dowry instead of their education is even more heart-breaking.
The government has been making persistent efforts to raise the status of the girl child in society as well as to incentivize her education through various schemes and programs. These methods have contributed to girls’ education to an extent, yet a lot more needs to be done for girls to be treated as equals to boys.
Early education can be instrumental in shaping society towards progress.
When a girl gets educated, she is empowered, she can make decisions for herself, raise the standard of living for herself as well as her family and children, generate more career options, and reform the community as a whole.
There are many instances of women using their voices, leadership to make an impact towards the progress for girls’ education globally.
One such example is Malala Yousafzai.
By daring to go to school as a young teen, Malala defied Pakistani extremists and their violent attacks and became a global icon for the importance of educating girls. Because of Malala’s heroic and eloquent statements for girls’ education, she was awarded at age 17 the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2014.
She is the founder of the Malala Fund, which advocates for international, national, and local level policy and system changes that give girls access to high-quality education.
As the saying goes, “We educate women because it is smart. We educate women because it changes the world”. The education of women allows for a decline in social issues like corruption, child marriage, domestic abuse, etc. Every girl child has the right to be treated equally with love and respect.
A change in the mindset towards girl child education in India is the need of the hour.