All on the same boat

The campaign for more to be done to rescue over 200 schoolgirls abducted by militants in northern Nigeria is attracting growing attention on social media.  People around the world are uniting in 'Bring back our girls' protest. Politicians, including US first Lady Michelle Obama, joined film stars and musicians in taking to Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to add their support for the kidnapped girls, who were snatched by Boko Haram gunmen for their school in Borno state on April 4th. The whole campaign is drawn with the sole motive of educating the girls. When this campaign is influencing its world wide followers and protesters against terrorism invading in girls' education in Nigeria, the condition of female education in Nepal is also one major issue to be thought about as we also are on the same boat.

The girl child population in Nepal constitutes half of the total child population. The interim Constitution of Nepal, 2007 and International human rights instruments which Nepal has ratified, especially the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), provides equal rights to all girls, irrespective of caste, religion and gender. But the reality is far from what the legal provisions have ensured.  Majority of girls are denied education. Majority of girls are neglected, humiliated, oppressed and exploited in their every day lives, which has led to be far from the premises of the school.  The prevailing unfair social attitude towards girls plays the role of terrorists in our country to snatch them for education as the atmosphere that prevails at home, family, community and at the national level obstruct the path of overall development of girls.

Most of the times, we tend to think that enrolment in the primary level at school is important. If we are able to send our daughters to school, then our work is done, but the reality is that it's only half work done when we are able to admit them in school. The tough task is to make them able to continue their schooling because most of the girls drop out without passing their School Leaving Certificate because of different social, economic and cultural barriers. And these all barriers are making our girls who go to school in their pinpoint like those terrorists who abducted the girls from their school. According to the Flash Report 2011/2012 prepared by Department of Education, in Nepal 'Net Primary Enrollment' in schools has increased from 81 percent in 2002 to 94.5 percent in 2010. Gender and social parity have been achieved in primary education. But the reality is that more than half of primary level student do not enter secondary schools, and only one-half of them complete secondary schooling. In addition, fewer girls than boys join secondary schools and, among those who do join, fewer complete the 10th grade. In most the the cases, the family with more than two or three school age children of 5 to 14 years age, some are sent to school, while others are kept at home for the domestic chores or wage earning. In such circumstances sons are preferred than the daughter to send a school.

There is the problem of actual number of out-of school girls who ever participated in the school or who are dropped from the school is a great challenge. Also, there is the problem of finding the actual reason of drop out. But, most of them are normally engaged in domestic chores. They spare their whole day either on household activities like grazing cattle, supporting their parents to work in the field or looking after their younger siblings. Moreover, the drop out rate of girls of 'Dalit' and 'Janjatis' are highest than others. According to UN, women in Nepal face ingrained discrimination because of the country's traditionally patriarchal nature, and can be further disadvantaged depending on their caste, ethnicity and geographic location.

Despite these challenges and gaps, their have been many efforts and positive contributions to protect the educational rights of girls. In order to change the gloomy picture of Nepali girls different governmental and non-governmental organizations are extending their support for female education. There is provision of scholarship for girl child and Dalit, distribution of text books, free admission to all children. Even the facilities of day meal, transportation facilities or allowances as appropriate and living facilities to those who can't attend school were provided. But, even with these promising efforts, there is not much improvement. Girls' access to mainstream education is still a major challenge for meeting the national and global goal of achieving education for all by 2015.

Then, where is the problem? The problem may not be in the planning and policy making or may not be in the incentives. It may be the curriculum, as most of the curriculum and textbook writers are males who are not sensitive to gender issues. Textbooks don't include topics or lessons chosen with the explicit aim of bringing about gender balance in the family, society and nation. There are instances where fathers are projected as important persons while mothers' roles are kept obscure. Similarly it may be the unfriendly gender environment at schools. Often, there are news about sexual and other kinds of harassment of female students by male students and male teachers, due to which parents are afraid of sending their daughters to school after they reach a certain age. These issues which we may overlook may be the actual barrier.  So, we must analyze the circumstances properly.

If we fail to properly analyze the nature and form of the problems and the reasons for such a situation of girls, we will fail to bring back our Nepalese girls from the verge of pitch darkness. These barriers to education are not lesser than the threat of terrorists for girl's education here in Nepal.  This will ultimately result in the failure to ensure a secure future for our women leading the country to backwardness.

http://www.bichardabali.com/articles/all-same-boat (article being featured in Bichar Dabali)