Why girls drop out of school
Subodh Varma | TIMES INSIGHT GROUP
The glass ceiling preventing women from becoming equal partners with men starts at home. A recently released report of the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) reveals shocking discrimination by families against girls on the question of their education. This attitude continues outside too, and prevents women from getting remunerative work, or equal wages.
The stamping out of education among girls begins early within the families, the survey found. Between the ages of 5 and 14 years, over 15% of girls, had never attended school, and 5% had dropped out after starting. So one in five of girls is already out of school by the time she is 14 years old. Among boys, this proportion is less11% never attend school and only 4% drop out. This gap widens as the children grow up. Between the ages of 15 to 19 years, nearly 17% of girls had never attended any educational institution compared to about 9% boys and, over 41% of girls who had been attending, dropped out compared to less than 38% boys. Thus it goes on with each passing year more and more children drop out, and among them, girls make up ever larger proportions. But why is this happening?
The survey asked for reasons and got some jaw-dropping answers. Among girls the two biggest reasons given for never attending school were education not considered necessary by family (27%) and doing domestic duties (18%). For boys, these two reasons were not so important. While 18% said that their family did not think education was needed, only 2% had to avoid school because of domestic duties. When the boys and girls were asked about why they dropped out after going to school for some time, the pressure on girls came out starkly 42% said that it was because they were told to look after the house work and 14% said that their elders thought that more education was unnecessary for them. In the case of boys, these two reasons were minor, given by only 11% of them. Their main reason for dropping out, given by 68%, was to supplement the family income.
So, while the need to bolster incomes forces families to get the boys to quit studying and start earning, in the case of girls it is still the traditional view that they dont need to get educated and that they should stick to home-making. The survey reveals widespread variation among states in this practice of discrimination against girls. Among males, the reasons for quitting studies are directly linked to overall availability of employment in the region in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Haryana and Delhi, states with better job opportunities in industry and services, about 70% boys say that they quit studies to find jobs. However, as far as girls are concerned, tradition still dominates thinking irrespective of opportunities. While close to 30% of girls never attended educational institutions in most northern states (except UP), in advanced states like Maharshtra, Kerala, Gujarat, Punjab and even Delhi, 30% to 50% of girls said that they were given domestic duties rather than go to school.
Why cant the daughters go out and earn for their families? Partly, it is the mentality that they should remain housebound, but partly it is also due to society not providing equal opportunities. The survey found that womens participation in work is still only 28%, exactly half of men. Even those who work, face discrimination in terms of wages.