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  • Title: Learning to write in the sand. Educating girls in India.
    Author: Datta B.
    Journal: People Planet; 1993; 2(1):18-23. PubMed ID: 12318180.
    Abstract:
    In India, the conclusion from experience of the URMUL Rural Health Research and Development Trust is that literacy involves attitude change. In remote and rural areas in Rajasthan parents see no need for literacy when .01% of women in 24 villages cannot read and write. The female literacy rate in Bikaner District is 17.57%; the annual population growth rate is 4.2%. Rajasthan had the lowest literacy rate in India in 1991 (20.84% vs. 39.52% for all India). There are many examples of traditional customs that place women in inferior positions: the wearing of the ghunghat (a thin veil) when men are around; confinement to the house even in illness; the belief that a girl is another's wealth, so why bother investing in her? The definition of a good wife is one who is willing to walk 10 km to fetch water. The desert habitat forces a demanding existence which does not leave much room for education. In degraded habitats, women's work is increased, and their girl helpers are also encumbered. In the government school at Mithariya, only 15 girls out of 125 students attend school. The URMUL program in a nonformal school has better girl enrollment (14 out of 25 children), but when the weather is good, the girls are working on the farms. In the village of 4BGM, a trust school is run by the Shiksha-Karmi Program of the state government; funding has come from the Swedish Development Authority. Teachers are recruited from the local population because of the remoteness of the area. Female teachers with 5-8 years of formal schooling are difficult to find and are instrumental in securing girl students, when parents refuse to send their daughters unless there is a female teacher. The importance of having female teachers was recognized in 1991 by the Ramamurti Committee of Education, which recommended at least 50% of teachers at all educational levels, be women. In 4BGM village, Sharada Devi was the only female teacher available, because husbands would not allow their wives to teach. An incentive to promote the value of literacy skills is to emphasize that daughters will be able to write home after marriage. Child marriage is still widely practiced, and is a great disincentive to girl's schooling and impairs health. The trust also runs nonformal adult literacy programs.
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