Girl Education in India

India has the largest illiterate population in the world (429 million) which exceeds the total combined population of the North American Continent and Japan. But in some ways India's progress has been remarkable too, the adult literacy rate has nearly tripled since 1951 from 18 percent in 1951 to 52 percent in 1991 and 65 percent in 2001.

The task of providing elementary education to all is massive and is made even more difficult as India spends less than

4 percent of its GNP on education and still then has devoted only half of its expenditure on elementary level education. This is unfortunate because if elementary education had properly been looked after and been made compulsory, (as was discussed in the constituent assembly of India and not accepted) 11, India would have become almost fully educated by now and would have entered the category of developed nations instead of logging behind as a developing state despite over half a century of independent status.

As far as education of girls is concerned there is much left desired in India and the sorry state of education needs, sincere and concerted efforts for showing some improvement and progress in the desired direction. The traditional value of girl education in India was teaching the ideals of motherhood and of making the home beautiful and attractive. The middle and higher classes of India have long suffered from the duality of an educated manhood and ignorant womanhood - a dualism that looses the whole levels of home and domestic life and has its reaction on personal and national character. Education of women, especially in the higher stages will make available to the country a wealth of capacity that is now largely wasted through lack of opportunity. It is only through education that women can realize their capabilities in the true sense and contribute in national development at the same time. It is also natural that education of girl child will lead to her empowerment and later of women at a larger scale.

It is through education and education only that the grand finale in all acts of discrimination against the girl child, the act of female feticide and infanticide (femicide), aimed to remove from the face of the earth the very womb from which was born the man, can be stopped from being played to the detriment and irrevocable harm to human kind.

The real and viable solution to this discrimination against the girl child lies in education. Here it must be remembered that mere literacy would not do, rather the need is to educate both the male and female of the homosapien species known as human beings as to their collective and separate roles; without failing to emphasize their equality. Education must emphasize that in a modern technological world, it is the intellect and not the muscle that will dominate production and means of livelihood. That need for absorption of knowledge and the ability to put to use this knowledge is the key to development and success, must be understood by all. That the girl is not a mere reproductive tool but rather a partner in progress must be understood by the society. This understanding on the part if society is imperative for eradicating the evil of discrimination against half of the human race.