Education for Removing Gender Disparities:

Education can became a very powerful instrument for protection and promotion of human rights, if right type of education is provided to all right from the beginning. For this, first of all gender disparities will have to be reduced and finally removed, not an easy task of any means. This can be achieved only when girls are helped to value their own worth and usefulness to the society and this can be done only by educating them.

To provide universal elementary education to all first of all, all gender disparities will have to be removed, especially in a country like India whose religious and socio-cultural traditions favor the male child.

The Jamtien Declaration (1990) was quite specific on this point; "The most urgent policy is to ensure access to, and improve the quality of, education for girls and women. The report presents a severe point agenda for accelerating girl’s education and for eliminating gender disparities. Some of the suggestions that should be taken care of India are,

1. Compulsory primary education laws' must be enacted and penalties for non-enrollment of girls should be severe. (It is the primary duty of parents to enroll and keep their children in schools and should be made so by law of the land).

2. Grants for education by the central government to provincial/state governments or by various governments to NGO's should contain a provisions that the amount of grant be reduced by the extent of disparity that prevails in the enrolment of girls and boys.

3. Supply side constraints should be overcome; for example by locating schools within easy reach of community, by maintaining, flexible hours, by establishing single sex school's if so desired by the community, and by offering scholarships to girl students to compensate their families for loss of their economic work at home.

4. The provision of more female teachers is a critical factor, the proportion of female teachers should be raised from the present 31 percent to at least 50 percent as soon as possible.

5. Community participation in planning and managing schools should be increased.

6. Concrete steps must be taken to enhance the overall status of women in society.