EDUCATING THE GIRL CHILD

Only A Symbolic Gesture

Nalini Taneja

THE scholarship scheme announced by the government for the single girl child can at best be characterised as a symbolic gesture. The media, however, seems keen on lapping it up without even trying to use its thinking faculties.  Most characterized it as a major initiative.

What the government has announced is that all girls from single-child families will receive a fee waiver and a cash scholarship from the senior school level onwards. This is further clarified that it is for non-professional courses and for the girl-child whose parents have consciously adopted family planning measures after the birth of their first child. It is, of course, irrespective of their income, the government adds.

Starting from the time a girl enters senior school, the scheme will provide her with Rs 800 per month, in addition to exempting her from paying fees. While the fee exemption will continue until post-graduation, the scholarship amount will be raised to Rs 1,000 per month for an under-graduate course, and Rs 2,000 per month to pursue a post-graduate degree. And, students who avail of this scholarship will not be barred from accepting other scholarships. If a student drops out mid-way without approval, the scholarship will stop and she will have to refund the amount she has already received from the government. The scheme will have to be implemented by all schools and colleges -- private or government-run, centre or state-level --- that are either funded or affiliated to the government.

The incentive will, however, be reduced for a family with two girls. Here, parents will have to pay for the education of only one girl, and while the fees may be waived no scholarship will be provided.

It has also been decided that all schools seeking affiliation to the Central Board of Secondary Education would have to give total fee waiver to every girl who is a single child of her parents. This waiver should be available from Class VI up to Class XII.

Here too if there are two girls both of them would be entitled to only a 50 per cent concession.

All these schemes and measures will be implemented out of the resources of the institutions concerned.

In addition, the CBSE will offer 550 scholarships based on its Class XII examinations, purely on merit at the rate of Rs 500 a month for pursuing undergraduate education in non-medical and non-engineering courses in recognised colleges. At the end of three years, 1,650 students will receive these scholarships. Under the purview of the postgraduate scholarship schemes, the first and second rank-holders of BA, BSc and BCom and first rank-holders in 18 identified Honours courses of all recognised universities and deemed-to-be universities will be given scholarships of Rs 2,000 a month for pursuing their postgraduate education in any recognised institution of higher learning in the country. The total number of students benefiting from this scheme will be nearly 5,000 from its second year, onwards.

In real terms what does this entire package amount to? To begin with just what is the number of schools in the entire country affiliated to the CBSE? Those in the states would have to have the scheme ratified in the states. Within these, how many single girl children does one expect? The government itself says not more than a dozen in every school, which is a gross overestimate. And numbers can only decline as we go up the ladder to undergraduate and postgraduate courses, not to mention those falling in the ‘merit ‘ category. The government seems to have forgotten the drop out rates and that there are millions of girls who have never seen the face of a school.

The entire cost to the government even at its own estimation, if every merit scholarship is taken, would be just Rs 14. 3 crore per year, and will benefit 350 girls in engineering and 150 in MBBS, and 550 girls in undergraduate courses. A thousand girls over a huge country like ours! And the amounts received in scholarship may see through an undergraduate day student in some colleges in the country, but the same can hardly be said about engineering and MBBS.

The burden of fee waivers will fall on schools and colleges which admit such girls, which has its own complications. While there is compulsion on schools to follow the scheme, there is no compulsion to actually give admission to a single girl child. Why would a private affiliated school do so? And most of the few single girl children are likely to be here than in government schools. Moreover, as Jyoti Bose, chairperson, National Progressive Schools Organisation, said, “Schools might well have to pass the burden on to parents to meet fee waiver” (Hindu, September 24, 2005). A related question, of course, is that within the social class that a single girl child is more likely to be found, a single girl child may actually find her parents encouraging her and investing more financially in her achievements than where there is boy and a girl, where the boy may still be privileged in comparison. 

The government claims other lofty social objectives as well:  to, in one stroke --- correct a heavily skewed sex ratio, promote the education of girl-children and, lastly, control population. One wonders if those in government and the media are at all in touch with the gravity of the situation on the ground, the complexities of poverty and social prejudice with no clear cut parallels between poverty and social prejudice.

In classes that live in dire poverty there is little prejudice against girls and certainly no contribution in the adverse sex ratio for girls. In upper classes it will take a lot more than Rs 1000 per month to rid them of social prejudice. And as for the great numbers in between, the middle and lower middle classes, employment guarantees and reversal of economic policies would go a long way in decreasing if not eliminating social prejudice.

As for population control, one can only wonder whether population figures are more affected by people having more children waiting for the boy to arrive or by increasing feticides in avoiding girls.

What the girl child needs is the implementation of the fundamental right to education, the expansion of the government school system, free elementary education, neighbourhood common school system and expansion of the child integrated scheme and the mid day meal scheme, real employment guarantee for her parents.

Symbols do matter, but they should not be used to mask the ugly reality.