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| Help the girl child escape to school |
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| Gender discrimination is a fact of life in almost all societies. The difference is only in degrees, forms, manifestations and practices. The belief that gender discrimination is specific to certain poor or conservative, castes or communities is rather misplaced. In fact such other discriminatory factors like caste, class, ethnicity and so on further reinforce gender disparities, cumulatively making women in the these circumstances victims of double or triple discrimination. Patriarchy, which is at the root cause of this reality, is not just a dominant cultural attribute. It exercises its hegemony in other sectors of life, economic, social, and political as well. It is linked to the control of all productive resources by a few and the economic and social domination by these. The culture that emerges out of this domination soon legitimizes itself, and passes as the culture for all. The inferior status of women thus permeates all realms of social and familial life. |
| It is true that the inequitable gender situation is more acute in certain regions or societies than others. The South Asian region is a clear example of this. This is demonstrated clearly by the fact that the sex ratio (FMR) in this region has been more or less continuously registering a decline in the number of females for every 1000 males in the population. In India, for instance, the number of females decreased from 972 in 1901 to 927 in 1991. The ratio has marginally improved to 933 in the last decade, but remains dismal. This reflects the acute state of discrimination and inferior status of women in the Indian society, which is obvious in many ways: the increasing violence against women, child marriages, female illiteracy, female infanticide/foeticide, lower health and nutrition status of women, low wages, practices like dowry, absence of inheritance and land rights rampant and under-reported cases of rape, molestation and eve teasing and mere nominal participation in social and political spheres. |
| The debate on the falling number of females in the Indian society, which started in the mid-seventies with the first report on the status of women in India, continues. This has been becoming more passionate and active during the past two years, particularly after the publication of the provisional results of the census 2001. These results revealed that while there was a marginal improvement in the number of women (from 927 to 933) for every 1000 men in general, there was a fall of 18 females (from 945 girl children in 1991 to 927 in 2001) for every 1000 males in the of 0-6 age group. Taken in conjunction with a similar steep decline in the previous 3 censuses, presents an alarming picture. The number of girls has actually fallen from 976 for 1000 boys in 1961 to 927 in 2001. |
| Child Sex Ratio 0 - 6 years |
| Years |
Families per 1000 males |
| 1961 |
976 |
| 1971 |
964 |
| 1981 |
962 |
| 1991 |
945 |
| 2001 |
927 |
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| To understand the implications of this further, it is also necessary to look at the figures in different regions, states and sectors. For example, the FMR in urban areas was reported to have declined by 32 points during this period while the reduction in the rural regions has been only 14 points. Most alarmingly, the decline has been very steep in the states like Haryana, Punjab, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and Maharashtra, the very states in the forefront of economic development in the country. |
| Comparison of FMR in different states to 1000 males |
| States |
1991 |
2001 |
| Punjab |
875 |
793 |
| Haryana |
879 |
820 |
| Gujarat |
928 |
878 |
| Maharashtra |
946 |
917 |
| Source: Economic Survey of Government of Maharashtra |
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| The discrimination against the girl child is rather all pervasive and begins very early, often even before her birth. It continues as she trudges along the roles of daughter, wife, mother, etc. The roles themselves are fixed around the home and family, notwithstanding the fact that she is continuously contributing to productive labour both outside the home and inside. Dictums like 'A girl is the wealth of others' -(Paraya dhan), 'Bringing up a girl child is like watering a neighbour's garden' - commonplace in many of the Indian languages- indicate how the discriminatory attitude is entrenched. The girl children of India are thus subject to biases and discriminations of various kinds in various measures, forms and degrees. |
| Survival increasingly threatened |
| The threat to the survival of the girl child has increased. Today in addition to the traditional practices of female infanticide and foeticide, fairly common in many parts of the country even today, modern technology and techniques such as sonography and amniocentesis are misused for annihilating the female foetus. The numbers of girls are decreasing, and this seems to be happening more in the high per capita income regions, even as the trend continues in other states like Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. Under- five mortality among females is also higher due to shorter breast feeding, less care, less nutrition, inadequate and delayed nutrition and so on. The push towards a small family norm and the predominance of market economy has strengthened the preference for a son, adding to the discriminatory trend. Practices like dowry are being reinforced due to both increasing consumerism and also religious revivalism in the society. This is making marriages more expensive in the middle and upper caste / class sections. The same trend is being emulated by the lower caste groups in the society as well. All these trends contribute to worsen the survival prospects of the girl child. According to a study in 1998 - 1999 in rural India, 42 out of 1000 girls died before the age of 5 years while in the case of boys, the number is only 28. It is reported that 'every third girl child born in India does not survive to see her teenage' 'Every sixth girl child dies due to gender discrimination'. |
| According to a UNICEF study almost 3mn of the total 4.5mn marriages in the country are of girls below 18 years, though 18 is the legal age for marriage. Early labour, early marriage, early motherhood: this seems to be the pattern for a majority of Indian girls. This contributes to increased risks of premature delivery, various health hazards, low birth weight babies, anemia, high maternity and infant mortality rates. |
| Shrinking opportunities |
| Looking at education at least 22% girls have not been to school at all. Educational expectations from girls are much lower than from boys. Consequently they are withdrawn from school easily. Thus more than 50% of the girls enrolled in primary schools drop out before the age of 12. The general indifference to girls' education is responsible for this. The PROBE study of 1999 reported that 49% of the households had withdrawn girls from school, for labour while this was given as the main reason for withdrawing boys only in 26% of cases. Girls are pulled out of school for looking after siblings, helping in domestic work, minding livestock and for other chores. |
| Girls are thus part of the invisible labour force at home. They take over the responsibility of running the home, cooking, collecting drinking water, fuel, bringing up the siblings, minding the livestock and family farms, while the mother is engaged in outside work. This denies girls the rights to development, health care, education, leisure, play, and so on. |
| Article 24: Prohibition of employment of children in factories, etc. |
| "No child below the age of fourteen years shall be employed to work in any factory or mine or engaged in any hazardous employment." |
| Article 45: Provision for free and compulsory education for children |
| "The State shall endeavour to provide, within a period of ten years from the commencement of this Constitution, for free and compulsory education for all children until they complete the age of fourteen years." |
| The toiling girl |
| In addition to sharing family responsibilities, they are of course a large work force, pliable, docile, hard working, regular and meticulous. They toil in many sectors like agriculture, domestic work, hotels and eateries, glass and glassware industries, zari making, pearl factories, vending, hosiery, silk weaving industries, match and beedi manufacturing, construction, bricks and tiles kilns, agarbatti making, rag picking and so on. The statistics on child labour are much disputed and the estimation of the number of children who are labouring range from 20 million to 110 million. The different estimates are based on different definitions of child labor and also different age groups. Official figures are available for children who are out of school as 63 million (Saikia Committee 97) for the age group of 6-14 years of age. According to the Department of Education (1999) 75.4 million children in the age group of 6 - 14 years are out of school in 1991. It would not be wrong to assume that most of these children are engaged in some kind of labour, either as part of family labour or wage labour or self employed, as in the case of scrap collectors. Given the fact that more girls are pushed out of school for various reasons, the number of girls out of school could be around 40 million, almost all working in some sector or other. |
| As shown above, a majority of these children would be girl children, toiling in various sectors. Apart from the labour exploitation and abuse these children are often exposed to sexual abuse as well. A survey of 6 metropolitan cities reported that among the 70,000 to 1,00,000 women in commercial sex work, 15% had entered the labour force between the age group of 15 to 18 years. |
| Sectors like domestic work, agarbatti making , beedi rolling, match boxes, silk twisting, hosiery, silk weaving, agriculture (transplanting, weeding, cross pollination) employ large number of girls. It may be opportune to quote some studies and estimates. |
| A study by Arun Bhattacharjee reached the conclusion that "The social belief that a female child is an economic liability can be countered by the argument that a girl works more than nine hours a day. By the time she ceases to be child she has provided economic help to the family worth Rs 39,600." |
| The unequal distribution of labour between the boys and girls is legitimized by the patriarchal value system. The girl must do the chores at home while the boys are allowed to play or go to school. It is as if the girl has to earn her livelihood while the sons are favoured by the parents anticipating support and help in the old age. And where there is a crisis, say drought or famine or even an economic crisis in the family, girls are the first to be taken out of school and sent to work. |
| It is estimated that atleast 20% of the total domestic workers are children below 18 years old and a good majority of them are girls. Apart from being exploited economically, through long hours of work, negligible pay, no leave, status of semi-bondedness, these children are often subjected to physical and sexual abuse. The latest report of a couple punishing a girl child by piercing her vagina and other parts with hot iron bar, allegedly for eating jaggery (Bihar - Indian Express, 7th Feb.03) is an illustration of the situation. Cases of torture and abuse of girls working as domestic help have been frequently reported. Very recently the Judicial Magistrate in Mangalore sentenced the employers of Sonia, a 10 year old domestic labourer, to six months imprisonment. Sonia was not provided adequate food, made to work beyond her capacity and severely beaten with iron rods. |
| The extent of girl child labour in the textile sector is well known. An overview of the labour situation presented the following picture. |
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| This again clearly indicates that more girl children are at work in this sector than boys. |
| It is reported that as much as 90 % if the children working in the match industries in Shivkasi are girls below 14 years. They work in extremely hazardous conditions doing repetitive jobs and are paid very little. Such jobs are not normally accepted by boys and men. The girl child labour here is on the one hand deprived of her right to schooling and learning and on the other hand does not even learn a skill as a result of her employment. Girls are thus confined to low pay, low skill and low status jobs. |
| The rate of participation in labour of girls is more than that of boys. An examination of the data on child labourers showed that 4.3% of all girls below 14 were employed while only 2.1% of all boys were in jobs. This means more younger girls are employed compared to boys. As the rate of schooling is improving, more boys are going to school and more girls to work. Between 1971 and 1981, there was a decrease in the rate or percentage of working boys in the rural areas while there was an increase in the percentage of girl child labourers. |
| A recent study by MAYA in the Rural District of Bangalore revealed that 15.8% of the girls in the villages were going to work, compared to 12.6% of the boys. Most of these girls were employed in sericulture and silk reeling and twisting. In some villages, the percentage of girls out of school was as high as 32%. These girls are denied the opportunities for education and development. They continue to be unskilled, illiterate and under-payed. This situation perpetuates poverty and destitution in the rural areas. |
| The Beedi industry is yet another sector spread out in various states (Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and so on.) which employs a large number of girls. Girls even as young as 5 and 6 years were found to be working for 10 hours a day by a researcher. |
| Yet another report on the 1981 census informs that 8.35 percent of girls under 14 years of age were employed as main workers while 9.35 % were marginal workers. As is well known, the bulk of the work of girls is invisible because it is mostly home-based or belongs to the domestic sphere. |
| Whither Protection ? |
| Is she protected from exploitation by legislation? Hardly - is the answer. The CLPRA is applicable to only those sectors where a clear employee - employer relationship exists and where the girl actually works in a factory. Home-based work is completely out of its purview. Even the so-called hazardous sector employment, where child labour is prohibited, falls out of the purview of the law when the work place is not a factory, but the home or other informal arrangement. And that is the general case both in girls' and women's employment for example, beedi rolling, agarbatti making, papad making, choir, silk and carpet weaning, domestic help, rag picking and processing and so on. |
| It is exactly the same situation as far as the regulation is concerned. No regulation can apply where there is no identifiable employer. Thus the legal protection available to the girl child labourer is dismal. The provisions are utterly insufficient and the implementation is even more distorted. The whole society stands indicted of not providing for the survival, protection, development and participation of the girl children, particularly the girl child labourer. |
| Thus millions of girl children are deprived of their rights of survival, protection and development. They have no opportunities to explore, to experience, to learn or to enjoy care and leisure. Their childhoods have been snatched away. They are exploited and oppressed in various ways. They are compelled to lead adult lives, labouring and fending for themselves and others. The girl child labourer's aspiration is to have her childhood back (Mujhe Mera Bachpan Lauta Do). |
| Perspectives for Change |
| The fact that millions of girls of India are languishing in toil and hard work is not just a matter that affects the girls or their families. It is an enormous loss to the whole country and humanity itself. These very same girls are part of the future of our society that is our own future. But the concern for them must not only be because of the future but because of the present as well because their rights are human rights and must be defended, here and now. |
| How do we do this? We can do this by 'helping them to escape from labour to school'. It might be interesting to fantasize about the situation in which all the girls up to 18 years of age are in schools where quality education would be imparted. What could be the results? |
- Child marriages are averted
- Child marriages are averted
- The health status of the girls improve, early child birth and related problems are controlled.
- Health situation of children improves, the number of children fall, population is controlled. Mothers are educated. Better care for children is made possible.
- Infant mortality is reduced.
- Child labour is made practically impossible. As all the girls are in school, they are not available for work.
- Health improves, skills are acquired.
- All girl children are educated can read and write, join new professions, do whatever they do - agriculture, cooking, house keeping, animal husbandry with better skills.
- Resist exploitation and discrimination.
- Illiteracy is eradicated, scientific temper instilled. Superstitions and irrational practices are discerned and rejected.
- Better participation by women in social and political matters are achieved and more equitable society is created.
- Education could reduce the shortage of skilled human power and excess of labour in the traditional sector and make a dent in the problem of unemployment.
- Further improvement in the health situation could make the following changes as mentioned in the World Development Report as "Improved health contributes to economic growth in four ways: it reduces production losses caused by worker illness, it permits the use of natural resources that had been totally or nearly inaccessible because of disease, it increases the enrolment of children in schools and makes them better able to learn and it frees for alternative uses resources that would otherwise have to be spent on treating illness. The economic gains are relatively greater for poor people, who are typically most handicapped by ill health and who stand to gain the most from the development of under-utilised natural resources"
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| Thus it is possible that quality education of all girls presently out of school lets loose a whole chain of positive social changes and ushers in a new dawn (Nai Subah). |
| The education of the girl child will have a ripple effect which will lead to significant changes in her own life and in the whole society. But this cannot be achieved with the kind of schooling that is available to her today. The new education policy of 1986 affirmed that 'a new structure of equality between the sexes must rest on the corner stone of education for girls'. The policy aimed at removing traditional discrimination and creating appropriate school curriculum without sex stereotyping. It further promised to secure access to education to all girls and promote girls entry to vocational and professional courses. But as is the case so often, the policy has mostly remained on paper and the girls continue to languish out of school and in employment. |
| At the threshold of the 21st century, the girls of this country deserve much more. They, each one of them, have a right to quality education, education that will enhance their critical and creative potential. Education must not only be free for her, but must free her spirits, her potentials and her dreams. It must promote the spirit of enquiry, must be contextual, bringing meaning to her life, must be joyful and liberating. Hers must be a school to which she can escape from the shackles of labour and all the other oppressive conditions of life. |
| The recent steps by the Government of India of passing the 93rd amendment of the Constitution, to make education free and compulsory for all the children between 6 - 14 years of age does not grant much to the girl child. On the contrary, it breaches the promises made to her (quoted above) through article 45 and 24 of the Constitution of India. It is time to make new commitments, new promises and not to breach the old ones. |
| Her plea has been best expressed through Tagore's Chitra: |
"Do not keep me on a pedestal to be worshipped,
Nor under your feet to be trampled,
But keep me at your side to share,
And to dare in facing this world."
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| The girl child's right to survival, health care and nutrition, education, social opportunities and protection has to be recognized and made a social and economic priority. Along with this the basic structural inequalities that cause poverty, malnutrition and the low status of women have to be addressed, if these rights are to be ensured. |
| This is the responsibility and concern of everyone. Only a concerted mobilization and action by all can help to create a new environment for the girl child labour and help her to awaken to a new dawn (Nai Subah). We should have acted yesterday. Today is already late. Let us not make it any later. Now is the time. |
C.9J. George
Terre des hommes (Germany) India. Programme
18th February, 2003 |
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| Bibliography |
| Books |
- Child Labour Cell: Child Labour in the Match Industry in Sivakasi, National Labour Institute ,New Delhi (1993)
- Govinda R: India Education Report, Oxford University Press (2002).
- Patil B. R : Working Children in Urban India: D. B. Publishers(P)Ltd, Bangalore (1988).
- Sekar Helen : No light in their lives, National Labour Institute, New Delhi (1993).
- Sherwani Azim: The Girl Child in Crisis, Indian Social Institute, New Delhi (1998).
- Ms. Sunanda: Girl Child Born to Die in killing fields, Alternative for India Development (1995).
- Voll Klaus: Against Child Labour- Indian and international Dimensions and Strategies, Mosaic Books and Third Millennium Transparency (1999)
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| Reports |
- Bal Haq Sarankshan Samanvay Samiti: Gharkaam karnarya mulinche honare sshoshan, Nashik( 2001).
- CACL, Centre for Education and Communication: Resource Kit- Fifteen years of Interventions Against Child Labour, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi (2001).
- CACL- CS: Toiling souls- A Report, CACL (2001).
- CACL- CS, National Consultation on child labour in hotel and domestic sectors- A Report, CACL- CS (2002).
- Centre for Women's Studies: The Girl in India: A Deprived Child, Ms. Ingrid Mendonca, University of Pune( 1990)
- Department of Women and Child Development: The Lesser Child, The Girl in India, New Delhi(1988)
- HAQ: Centre for Child Rights: Children in Globalising India ( 2002).
- Jagori: Hamari Betian- Insaaf Ki Talaash Mein, Ms. Kamala Bhasin, New Delhi (1991).
- Maya: Which Silk route this? Maya Trac, Maya's vocational Training Centre (2000).
- The Royal Norwegian Embassy: Child Labour- Impact assessment manual, (1997).
- UNICEF: The Girl Child in India, SAARC Year of the Girl Child
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| Articles |
- Frontline: The Hindu (14th February, 2003)
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