Educating a Girl Child Means Educating the Family
“I ask you all so earnestly to open girl’s schools in every village and try to uplift them. If the conditions of women are raised, then their children, will, by their noble actions, glorify the name of the country.”
-Swami Vivekanand
Today’s girl child will be the mother of tomorrow. As a mother, she can give her child a sound nursing and capable upbringing. A woman has the maximum impact on the social, economical decision making in the family generally. At the micro-level, educated woman rescues in making the whole family including the older family members understand the values and importance of education, and at the macro level, educated women add to the social and economical development of the nation.
Girls education is as in sowing the seed which gives rise to green, cheerful and full-grown family plant. In ancient time girl’s education had a significant place in society. Gargi and Maitreyi played a very encouraging role in spreading education to a great extent.
Women’s social conditions started deteriorating with the passage of time. Instead of providing them education, they are being subjected to sufferings under the Purdah system, child marriage: In a few states, female infanticide is prevalent every today. A new culture of elimination of female foetus has gradually become rampant. Discrimination between the education of girl and boy is common in rural areas. Parents realize that the education of girls is a wastage as they will get to their husbands after marriage and more dowry have to be paid for a more educated girl. The poverty and illiteracy among the people is also a big reason for not sending the girls to schools and colleges. But things are being changed, though slowly and slowly. The various awakening programmes launched by the government for encouraging the girl’s education, the introduction of TV’s in rural areas, the 33% reservation given to females in Panchayats have played a positive role in this direction. Now the importance of educating the girls is being realized several other policies, like 30% reservation to female candidates in services, enhanced subsidy to girls entrepreneurs, various self-employment schemes launched for the benefits of women like Women Entrepreneurs Development Programme, Self Help Groups of women have resulted in mobilizing and directing the parents to get their daughters educated. The educated women can help in eradicating many social evils prevalent in the society, like dowry, illiteracy and so on many programmes of the governmental like population control, polio eradication, programmes relating to the development of the rural area in which the co-operation and co-ordination of the rural masses are necessary, can well be taken care by the women representatives of the Panchayats. If these representatives are educated the implementation of the programmes will be a grand success. Education gives effectiveness and confidence to women. An educated woman not only helps in nourishing the family in a better way but can also help in earning. Rightly said that God made the mother because he could not be present everywhere. A woman cares the family-like God.
“One could judge the degree of civilisation of a country by the social and political position of its women.”
-Charles Fourier
Education for a girl child means making the next generation well educated, full of virtues, free from the useless superstitions, confident and capable to do something good for the family, for the society and for the country as a whole. The present-day girl is the mother of tomorrow.
“Give me good mothers and I will give you a great nation”.
– Nepolean
She is the most crucial and reverend entity. She must be given all the necessary education. Ignoring her, keeping her illiterate means we are creating an illiterate and ignorant generation. So it is perfectly true that educating a girl child means educating a family. Development cannot be accelerated unless girls are provided with the right education in the right direction. Swami Vivekanand has rightly said, “Educate your women first and leave themselves, then they will tell you what reforms are needed.”
