Kanya Shiksha Pravesh Utsav

A step towards bringing back girls who have dropped out of school

Source: All India Radio

Context: Union Government Launched ‘Kanya Shikhsa Pravesh Utsav’ campaign to bring back out of school girls to the formal education and/or skilling system.

Details:

The Ministry of Women and Child Development, in partnership with the Ministry of Education and United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), launched a campaign ‘Kanya Shikhsa Pravesh Utsav’ to bring back out of school adolescent girls in India to the formal education and/or skilling system.

The campaign was launched with the objective of increasing the enrolment and retention of girls between 11-14 years of age in school.

The initiative intends to build on the existing schemes and programmes like Schemes for Adolescent Girls, Beti Bachao Beti Padhao and National Education Policy to work on a comprehensive system for out of school girls.

Significance of the campaign:

The campaign will target more than 400,000 out of school adolescent girls as primary beneficiaries.

It will create awareness and also increase investment in health, education, protection, skill building including financial literacy.

It will empower young women and girls, and promote gender-equality among India’s children and youth.

It aims to create an inclusive environment and infrastructure for education.

Challenges related to Women education:

School Dropout, reasons include distance of school from home, care of siblings, and increasing violence against women.

Girls’ education continues to be attacked by a Patriarchal socio‐cultural ethos.

Negative attitudes towards education of daughters, child marriage, Daughter discrimination.

Lack of facilities in schools, particularly sanitation facilities.

Lack of Gender socialization, lack of sensitization of teachers.

Lack of women teachers.

Inherent inequalities in Social structure and Stigma of caste, class, religion, language, disability and so on.

Way forward:

Adopt Gender inclusive Education policy.

Provision of infrastructural facilities such as sanitation, clean drinking water, hostels.

Ensuring Gender sensitive teachers, Increase women teachers.

Special provisions for safety and security of girls.

Special Provisions for Counseling and guidance.

Incentives, such as fee waiver, for disadvantaged girls, who seek admission in open School Programmes.

If you educate a woman, you educate a family, if you educate a girl, you educate the future.