GENDER ISSUES IN PRIMARY
 EDUCATION
 

National Council of Educational Research and Training New Delhi

ABSTRACT

The present study looks at gender sensitive project planning and implementation, increasing number of school, for girls - both formal and non-formal, improving support services for girls and increasing the number of women functionaries in education, making the content and process of education gender bias free and building positive self-image among girls, sensitizing educational personal and community, monitoring progress of gender equality, social mobilization etc. leading to a society where being a man or woman does not work as advantage or disadvantage to a person. Based on various findings, the paper suggests suitable programme interventions in different areas.

Gender Perspective in National Policy on Education

The National Policy on Education - 1986 is a major landmark in the evolution of the status of women in India. The NPE goes substantially beyond the equal educational opportunity and social justice (equity) approach and expects education to become an instrument of women's equality and empowerment. Paras 4.2 and 4.3 of the NPE put the issue of women's equality on centre stage:

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Education will be used as an agent of basic change in the status of women. In order to neutralise the accumulated distortions of the past, there will be well-conceived edge in favour of women. The national education system will play a positive, interventionist role in the empowerment of women. It will foster the development of new values through redesigned curricula. textbooks. the training and orientation of teachers, decision-makers and administrators, and the active involvement of educational institutions. This will be an act of faith and social engineering. The women's studies will be promoted as a part of various courses and educational institutions encouraged to take up active programmes to further women's development.

The removal of women's illiteracy and obstacles inhibiting their access to, and retention in, elementary education will receive overridding priority. through provision of special support services, setting of time targets, and effective monitoring. Major emphasis will be laid on women's participation in vocational, technical and professional education at different levels. The policy of non- discrimination will be pursued vigorously to eliminate sex stereotyping in vocational and professional courses and to promote women's participation in nontraditional occupations, as well as in existing and emergent technologies.

The Programme of Action (POA) as revised in 1992 clearly spells out the need for the entire educational system to be alive to gender and regional disparities. Gender sensitivity is to be reflected in the implementation of educational programmes across the board. The POA makes it incumbent on all agencies and institutions in the field of education to be gender-sensitive and ensure that women have their rightful share in all educational programmes and activities. To this effect all educational institutions have to plan and act. All educational personnel, therefore, need to be sensitised on gender issues.

Sex and Gender

There is gradual realisation that men and women play an overlapping variety of roles which complement one another. A change for one inevitable brings a change for the other. A balanced gender-aware approach would be the best way to implement development programmes. Whereas sex is biologically determined, gender imputes values to biological differences. One is born female or male but it is one's culture which makes one masculine or feminine. Gender is thus the cultural definition of behaviour defined as appropriate to the sexes in a given society at a given time. Gender roles are hard to change but as they are socially/ culturally created, they are changeable. Gender roles are a learned behaviour. These roles in their social, economic and political dimensions vary across cultures and are internalised very early in life. There is non-conscious internalisation of the gender role ideology during early childhood and education does little to

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modify or change this. In fact, education further strengthens the familiar gender-based division of labour and resources through inequitable distribution of school resources and a gender discriminatory transaction of the curricula. The main actors of gendering in school are the teachers, the educational planners and administrators, the curriculum developers and the textbook writers. And, they all emerge from the same society and have internalised (unequal) gender roles. It is only after unlearning some of the prejudices and stereotypes that an administrator, or a textbook writer can become a source of women's empowerment or gender equality. The POA recommends that :

(i) All teachers and instructors will be trained as Agents of women's empowerment. Training programmes will be developed by the NCERT, NIEPA, DAE, SRCs, DIETs, SCERTs and the university system. Innovative training programme will be designed with the assistance of concerned organisations and women's groups.

(ii) The common core curriculum is a potentially powerful instrument to promote a positive image of women. The Department of Women's Studies, NCERT will intensify activities already initiated in the area of developing gender-sensitive curriculum, remove sex-bias in textbooks and training of trainers/teachers. SCERT and concerned state level boards and institutions will initiate similar work.

In the area of girl's education and women's empowerment, significant research and development work was done for operationalising NPE commitment to education for women's equality after 1986. Considerable data-based analysis pointed to the educational and social lag of women and girls especially those belonging to rural areas. The most significant contribution of these field-based empirical studies was to highlight the regional and gender disparities and help in identifying districts which were backward in female literacy and schooling. This formed the basis for girls/women focussed EFA strategies and so the Eighth Five Year Plan (1990-95) focusses on issues of rural girls and women from disadvantaged groups.

The 1980s were a significant period when issues of sex-bias in curriculum and its transaction were raised and tools were developed to analyse textbooks and other learning materials from the point of view of gender equality and later from the angle of women's empowerment. This was also a time when teacher education curriculum was reviewed from gender perspective.

Several EFA initiatives have been taken in the 1990s to include Bihar Education Project, Andhra Pradesh Primary Education Project, Uttar Pradesh Basic Education Project, Lok Jumbish in Rajasthan and Total Literacy Campaign (TLC) in more than 200 districts, with focus of girls' education and women's empowerment. The experience gained in these on-going projects has been utilised in formulating one of the largest primary education programme, namely, the

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District Primary Education Programme (DPEP).

Against the backdrop of policy commitment and the educational and social lag of women and girls, gender studies were taken up in 40 districts of the States of Assam, Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. These were primarily low literacy districts or districts where TLCs have been taken up.

GOALS OF GENDER STUDIES

IMMEDIATE GOALS

- Gender-sensitive project planning and implementation.

- Increasing number of schools/places for girls' formal/non-formal education.

- Improving infrastructure and support services for girls and increasing number of women teachers and women administrators.

- Making the content and process of education gender-bias-free, highlighting elements to build a positive self-image and self- confidence among girls.

- Gender sensitisation of all educational personnel, parents and community.

- Monitoring progress towards gender equality.

- Social mobilisation, awareness generation, consciousness raising, advocacy, campaigns for survival, protection and development of, the girl child education as a key input.

- Energising existing women's groups.

- Organising new groups.

- Supporting action by women and community to promote girls' education and to raise status of women.

- Reconstruction and deconstruction of gender roles according to present and future requirements.

LONG-TERM GOAL

- When being a man or a woman works neither to the advantage nor to the disadvantage of a person.

Objectives

1. Mapping out gender disparities in access, enrolment and retention.

2. Identifying causes for non-enrolment and drop-out of girls and propose effective districts/local-specific strategies for improved enrolment, retention and achievement among girls.

3. Assessing the situation of women in each district with regard to some social

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and demographic indicators and women equality and empowerment.

4. Collecting information on gender-bias in (a) textbooks, (b) teacher training, (c) teacher attitude, (d) transaction, and (e) administrators' attitudes.

5. Identifying supportive community structures such as women groups, VECs, Panchayats, PTAs, teacher organisations, youth clubs for developing effective strategies of UPE among girls.

6. Identifying ways of facilitating convergence of services of different departments for UPE among girls (ECCE health and support services).

7. Studying the availability of educational (books, stationery, uniforms) and other incentives (noon meals, attendance prizes, etc.)

8. Assessing participation of women in teaching, administration and other decision-making bodies.

9. Developing state/district level monitoring and frame-work for removal of gender disparities.

Earlier Studies

The girls suffer from abnormally high incidence of dropout. In fact a large majority of them consist of pull-outs who are pulled out of the educational system by sheer force of socioeconomic and cultural compulsions. Then, there are educational factors, like irrelevance of curriculum, discriminatory attitudes of teachers, parents and community regarding the value of education particularly to girls who are forced to quit without completing the primary stage of education.

The situation among rural girls was found to be much worse in 1976. According to a national study conducted in 13 major states, the drop-out rate for girls in rural areas was 65.6 per cent compared to 22.3 per cent in urban areas. The high rate of drop-out of rural girls was 52 per cent compared to 44 per cent for urban girls (NCERT, 1976). This study reflected that there were more repeaters than premature withdrawals contributing to the overall drop-out in a particular batch. Further, the high rate of drop-out was more in earlier classes, i.e. between Class I and II and the enrolments stabilised in later classes. It was also found that states in which the primary stage constituted Classes I-IV the drop.out of girls was very high, and was higher among the rural girls.

Reasons for High Drop-out of Girls

Reasons for high drop-out among girls given by the parents, the community, the girls themselves and the educational practitioners are poverty, early marriage, helping parents with house work and agricultural work, unattractive school environment, parents' illiteracy and indifference, lack of a positive educational climate, neglect of studies leading to repeated failure and finally withdrawal from schools. Girls join very late and are withdrawn at the onset of puberty. Parents

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do not see any benefits of girls continuing in school and are in a hurry to marry them off so that their liability is shed.

Findings of a national study (NCERT, 1993) show a striking difference in the self-perception of girls who stay at home and the drop-outs, the former had a relatively higher self-image and a supportive family environment by and large. There were, however, cases where girls showed great determination and were doing well in spite of several odds. By and large, drop-outs were from relatively poorer households who may initially register the girls in school but later withdraw them on account of economic compulsions of work at home and many times on account of lack of clothes and extra tuition costs. Girls, when they do not fare well repeatedly, are withdrawn whereas boys are made to continue. Girls get much less time for studying at home, and leisure and play are remote events in their lives. Boys have the liberty to play and even while away their time as it is considered natural that they are playful.

It may be pertinent to point out that though enrolment ratios of girls in primary and upper primary are very high in the North Eastern states and tribal regions, the drop-out rates of girls are equally high and field studies and field observations show that though gender discrimination is not prominent in other aspects like food, health, personal freedom, girls are held back for working on the fields and looking after animals and little use is seen by the parents to give formal education to them.

Reasons for Low Enrolment of Rural Girls

The reasons assigned for non-enrolment of rural girls are a combination of educational and extra-educational factors, where low and inadequate provision supply) compound the socioeconomic disadvantage of rural girls

(i.) Low access and provision of educational facilities.

(ii.) Lack of adequate support services of child care, medical and health care.

(iii.) Lack of access to convenient sources of water, fodder and fuel.

(iv.) Low female literacy and associated low status of women.

(v.) Low parental education and apathy to education of daughters.

(vi.) Low valuation of female life itself and discriminatory atitudes towards female child in access to food, health care, education and leisure.

(vii.) Early marriage of girls hinders their educational chances.

(viii.) Keeping poverty as constant, in poorer households the burden of male unemployment is passed on to women and children, particularly girls. Daughters attend to domestic chores and sibling care. Hence, they either do not join school or drop out. This trend will continue unless employment is assured for one adult.

(ix.) Girls and women's work is considered interchangeable not boys'

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work and hence the perceived opportunity costs for girls are higher than those for boys (Chamie, 1982:32). Another study shows that a 10 per cent rise in female wages reduced school attendance of girls by 5 per cent. (x.) Girls in poorer families labour pool significantly improve the amount of schooling which male children receive.

(xi.) The large size of poverty households is a deterrent to female education, as girls from such households are required at home for sibling care and for domestic work, in addition to helping the parents on family farms and household industry/labour.

(xii.) However, the number of female children enrolled in schools, rise within the levels of household income (Shrestha, 1983; Nayar, 1988; Khan, 1989), parental education, especially father's education (Shah, 1989), and the size of land holdings.

(xiii.) A recent study has found a positive relationship between the per capita household expenditure (PCHE) and performance of children at school. With the increase in PCHE, the enrolment of girls catches up fast. The enrolment rate for girls and boys equalises when the average per capita household expenditure is of Rs 225 per month.

Methodology

The study is primarily, qualitative and was carried out in participatory research mode. The concerned communities, parents, officials and researchers met together in face-to-face interaction and discussed the major issues of continuance, discontinuance and non- enrolment of girls in primary education. Structured individual interviews and group discussions were carried out in addition to secondary data obtained from the state, districts, block and sample villages. Field observation was employed to support/strengthen data obtained from secondary sources and through individual/group discussions.

In rural and urban slum settings, there is hardly any concept of household privacy. Household interviews in villages and urban slums were a family/ community affair. Each interview turned into a mini discussion group with the male household head as chief respondent but household women, mother, wife, daughter, all participating. The responses registered are to be seen as parental responses as both male/female parents or occasionally a grandfather or a grandmother had their pieces to say, neighbours did not stay away either. When the investigators moved to the next identified household, the previous household head would usually accompany. In a little while it would seem that the research team was heading a small procession.

It would be pertinent to state that the group discussions where consciously

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conducted responses were elicited from all present, women had their full say. This compensated for male dominance of household interviews, where men felt as heads of households, it was their prerogative to give information.

Secondary Data

The secondary data was collected on the following variables:

- Social and demographic indicators, population distribution by sex, rural-urban areas, sex ratio, age- specific population, especially for age-group 0-6 and 6- 11 years, population density, age-specific mortality rates, infant mortality rate, child mortality rate, age at marriage by sex, child labour, work participation rate by sex, by main and marginal workers and by rural/urban areas, wherever possible.

- Literacy by sex, rural-urban, SC/ST 1981, 1991.

- Availability of primary schools/NFE Centres, ECCE Centres within walking distance of 1 to 1.6 km for girls.

- Availability of educational and other incentives like books, stationery, remedial teaching, uniforms, noon meals and attendance scholarships.

- Enrolment by sex, rural-urban, SC/ST.

- Drop-out by sex, rural-urban, SC/ST.

- Total number of teachers by sex, rural-urban, SC/ST.

- Women teachers as percentage of total teachers.

- Women's participation in terms of percentage in educational administration and other decision making/bodies like Panchayats and VECs.

- Supportive structures such as ECCE (Anganwadi, Balwadi, pre-schools), women's groups (Mahila Mandals, Mahila Samakhya, NGOs, etc.); VECs, PTAs, Panchayat Education Sub-committees, teachers' organisations, Nehru Yuvak Kendras (youth clubs).

- Schemes and programmes of education departments and other departments (GOI and state governments) for girls' education and women's development.

Primary Data

The primary data was collected though group discussions, field observation ant] interviews with parents, teachers, administrators, community leaders and dropout and never-enrolled girls themselves. The purpose was to identify :

- Reasons for continuance of girls in schooling.

- Reasons for discontinuance of girls from schooling.

- Reasons for non-enrolment of girls.

- Perceived utility of girls' education.

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- Perception of gender equality and gender discrimination.

- Proposed strategies for UPE of girls' and women's empowerment.

- Role of parents, community leaders, administrators and teachers in UPE for girls.

The Sample Design

The districts selected under the SSN project are low female literacy- districts. Originally, it was proposed to conduct gender studies in two blocks-one with relatively high female literacy and the other with low female literacy rate. Later, on the advice of the national core group, it was decided to select one of the baseline survey block for gender studies keeping the number of sample villages the same. In each block eight villages were to be selected for collection. of primary data to represent : (a) villages having no school, (b) villages having a primary school only, (c) Villages having middle school, (d) villages having secondary or higher secondary school.

In addition to the above, one/two urban slum communities were also selected for collection of primary data. This was not followed uniformly. For instance, Karnataka used different criteria for selecting these villages in each of the four districts. Assam stuck to the original plan of selecting four villages from two blocks.

Major Departures

The study is innovative in several dimensions such as :

- Household was used as the entry point instead of the schools.-

The phenomena of drop-out and non-enrolment of girls were studied separately.

- Since the education of girls in inextricably linked with the immediate socio-economic and cultural context, the study adopted the anthropological method of taking village as a unit of study. As it is well established now primary education really belongs to people, and should be their concern, each villager needing to develop a stake in its implementation. These village studies have followed the holistic intersectoral and multidisciplinary framework.

- They provide location-specific analysis and intervention strategies, taking into account the interactive social structures and the development infrastructure, as it impinges on education.

- Instead of a team of educational researchers only, the study was an interactive process among (a) persons from. various disciplines like sociology, social anthropology, women studies, education, zoology,

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political science, home science, economics, psychology and statistics, (b) practitioners like Education Commissioner, SCERT faculty, Director, Primary Education, DIET personnel, District Primary Education Officer, Block Education Officers, head teachers and teachers; (c) users, e.g. community leaders, parents, women and girls and deprived groups.

The study was process-oriented, change-oriented and people- oriented. The net result has been the achievement of common perceptions and commonality of action. It now provides a framework for action by policy planners, administrators, teachers, teacher educators and the community.

The Process of Capacity Building

One of the objectives of DPEP is capacity building and creating a culture of field research. The National Core Group Gender (NCGG) met in a workshop to discuss the proposal for gender studies from 1-3 June 1993. The proposal was sent to MHRD on 4 June -1993.

The NCGG strengthened itself. Each NCGG member who had the responsibility of looking after a state fully participated in selection and training of project personnel. He/she was accompanied by two/three members of NCGG team. Project Director participated in all the training programmes and introduced the concept and method of DPEP, gender equality and gender studies. She also met senior state/district officials for seeking their support and participated in the field work in several districts. One consultant and six professional assistants were appointed to assist NCGG. The professional assistants were oriented on the concept and modalities of DPEP at NCERT during the last week of September 1993. They were trained in the methodology of collecting data from secondary sources. Each one of them was assigned one state for detailed study on educational and other indicators. They were exposed to the seven interview schedules, individual and group interviews, techniques and methods of field observation for collection of primary data. Along with all the NCGG members, state coordinators (gender studies) participated in the review of schedules and development of coding and tabulation plan.

The Department of Women's Studies had earlier conducted a national study on factors responsible for continuance and discontinuance of girls in the schooling with focus on rural, SC/ST, and urban slum populations. The schedules used in that study were modified after field-testing in some locations. The revised project proposal was sent to MHRD on 29 June.

An orientation programme for coordinators of the project from the DPEP states was held on 8 and 9 July. The participants modified the schedules. State coordinators were also requested to identify their teams of researchers and prepare a status paper.

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A national workshop on `Elimination of gender bias from textbooks and providing inputs into primary teacher education curriculum' was held from 25 to 27 August 1993. Coordinators and curriculum experts from DPEP states participated in the workshop. Textbooks were reviewed and primary teacher education curriculum was scanned through.

After feedback from the field work in four villages of Kaithal, Haryana and four villages from Tikamgarh, Madhya Pradesh during the third and fourth week of September, the Project Director in consultation with other members of NCGG revised all schedules from 1 to 4 October 1993.

Initial training of professional assistants lasted three days of intense interaction among NCGG members, state coordinators and professional assistants on conceptual issues and field work methodology. The duration was highly insufficient.

Major components of this training consisted of:

(i.) Gender sensitisation and discussion on status of women on the basis of state status paper.

(ii.) DPEP framework and gender studies.

(iii.) Exposure to interview schedules and forming of a battery of supplementary questions.

(iv.) Mock interviews - individuals and group.

(v.) Formation of teams following the mode of dyad technique: all individual and group interviews were to be conducted by a team of two, sometimes with one person keeping the discussion going and the second taking notes (on schedules/diaries). The role of the discussant and the reporter was to be interchangeable.

(vi.) Methodology of field observation: Maintenance of daily diary.

(vii.) Planning of field work, logistics and time schedule.

(viii.) Actual exposure to field situation in a nearby locality.

It was found impractical to train professional assistants and other state personnel in the highly specialised clinical psychology/psychiatric technique of focussed group discussions. Also the feedback from Kaithal and Tikamgarh field work indicated that assembling of homogeneous discussion groups in the villages or in the slums is not feasible. The moment you enter a community, people just flock in and it becomes difficult to separate them into homogeneous groupings. You have to respond to their curiosity and enthusiasm by making them a part of the discussions. It was, therefore, decided that the NCGG members, and state/ district coordinators would themselves undertake group discussions initially so that the professional assistant acquires the working level competency.

This multi-tier field-based training resulted in formation of highly motivated competent field teams. This is a point for enormous satisfaction considering that DPEP is a process directed at generating and developing national/state/district

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level capacities for gender studies and gender training. These groups have developed a potential for carrying out further work in the area. The state coordinators are fully equipped to plan and conduct gender intervention in DPEP management, content and process of primary education and gender sensitisation of all educational personnel, parents and community.

Limitations

- Field work slated to start in August had to be delayed till October as funds were released to the states only by September end, after which they appointed the professional assistants. Their training had to be rushed. Field work was completed during October- December 1993 in six state. Field work in Madhya Pradesh continued till March 1994. Orissa responded only in April and has finished field work.

- Field-based research was a new concept and the first experience for several NCGG members and the state coordinators. Despite several national and state level meetings and similar interaction by the NCGG, each state coordinator made some local variations and adjustments.

- As the reports had to be rushed to Delhi by the end of January for a national meeting, there was little time to supervise report writing, data analysis and data display. Despite such pressures, the state coordinators did an excellent job in preparing draft reports based on preliminary analysis of data. As they were handling such data for the first time, analysis was kept simple. The data display and analysis can be further improved as also the report format and content before printing.

The Interaction Field

(i.) State level: Education Secretaries, DPIs/SCERTs Directors, State Coordinator Gender Studies State Project team (multi-disciplinary and often drawn from same district/language group).

(ii.) District level: District Collectors, District Primary Education Authorities, District Primary Committee comprising officials of other concerned departments, eminent educationists and representatives of NGD.

(iii.) Block level: Block Development Officers.

(iv.) Village level: Panchayats, community leaders, teachers, parents, dropout links, never-enrolled links and group discussions.

(v.) In 21 districts under reference in six states, in all, 202 villages/slums were visited.

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Summative Methodological Issues

No attempt is made to aggregate data at the national level as that would be self-defeating. District studies were carried out as district-specific situational analysis of girls' education and women's empowerment (or lack of it!). Each district is a unique social system and within that specific communities have their own subsystems. Some kind of aggregation can be done at best at the state level, where the responsibility lies for common denominators like:

(i.) Policy measures and programmes for primary/girls' education and women's development and other broad strategies.

(ii.) Curriculum development; textbook preparation.

(iii.) Preparation of teachers for curriculum transaction (pre-service, in-service).

(iv.) Inter-departmental cordination

Therefore, gender studies reports are presented district-wise and state-wise only. The studies are fairly detailed, have identified district-specific issues and strategies as perceived to by the users (parents, community, girls) and the members of the delivery system (educational and other development administrators and. teachers).

Even though the issues of access, enrolment and, retention might look common, the degree or magnitude or requirements, has not only to be district-specific but block-specific and village-specific. As a first step, we have moved to the district as a sub-unit for plan project formulation. In the wake. of Panchayat Raj, we have to move towards block level, Gram Panchayat, and institutional level planning. How many, how much is required of the same or the different is to be known.

The study was carried out in the spirit of NPE/DPEP to effect decentralised, participatory planning and implementation of primary education and building state and local level capacities. Although the study design was formulated and finalised with the participation of state coordinators at the national level and constant link was maintained with them and their project teams (professional assistants), effectively, they are the ones who carried out the field work, analysis and report writing within six months. The NCGG provided support at every stage - project staff selection, establishing rapport with state and district officials, orientation of project staff on field work techniques, data analysis and report writing.

The district reports have to be seen in the light of the fact that it was at times the first brush of concerned state coordinator or with social research and that too field-based and empirical. All six state coordinators, extremely capable and dynamic, were urban middle class women, who (as they admitted) sat and talked with the parents in villages and slums, listened to their side of the story with empathy, internalised and understood the problems and issued concerning girls'

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education and women's equality and made suitable interventions in district level workshops. They can utilise district findings for formulating state level interventions. They have even gone ahead to phasing and costing of these interventions.

Data Analysis

The presentation of data and its analysis was kept simple so that the state teams could handle the same with ease. This study is not quantitative in any real sense. Interviews and discussions have been the chief mode in addition to observation of the field by the investigators. Analysis of secondary data at the state and the district levels provided the backdrop on girls' education and the status of women (state status paper and district profiles were prepared).

Only simple descriptive statistics like frequencies, percentage, ranking have been employed for a limited quantification of qualitative data in the form of simple tables. The full scope of even bivariate analysis has not been exhausted due to extreme shortage of time. The field diaries and field notes can be further analysed.

Data for all none locations (eight villages and one urban slum) has been clubbed and presented together. The data is available for each location separately. In the second stage, data analysis would be disaggregated column-wise for (i) unserved villages, (ii) villages with primary schools, (iii) villages with middle schools, (iv) villages with high/higher secondary schools, and (v) urban slums. The data can be aggregated row-wise for all DPEP districts in a state to indicate a broader set of findings.,

For academic purposes, data on certain variables may be aggregated for all 44 districts - 21 in six states, 19 in Madhya Pradesh and four in Orissa exercising a lot of care as to what all we are adding, of the same and the different.

The district reports may look quite the same, as they have a more or less common format, but each one read carefully gives more a glimpse of the situation of girls' education and women's status. The reports are drafted keeping in view their users, i.e. district and state level educational administrators and teacher educators. The reports give a brief but clear analysis of the following:

1. Situation of primary education of girls and female literacy (block-wise in some states) and highlight issues of access, low enrolment and low retention and reasons for continuance, discontinuance, non-enrolment as perceived by parents, girls, community, teachers, administrators.

2. Both primary and secondary data on other social and demographic variables provide insights on the actual situation of women and girls in the district and specific rural and urban communities that were studied. One gets an idea as to how gender roles are perceived by chief actors around the girl child-the parents, the teachers, the administrators, the

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community leaders-and how the girl herself perceives her total situation if she has dropped out or has never gone to school. What all she does for the family, her hopes, her fears, how equal she feels or is treated by her family, her parents. What does a drop-out remember of her school and her wish/possibility of getting back to education, formal or non-formal? Did the school turn her away or the family factors pulled her out?

Gender studies are based on the assumption that gender discrimination exists within the educational supply factors, availability of school places/access and within the family situation which determines the demand for girls' education and full utilisation of available educational opportunities. What look like causes for low enrolment, higher drop-out, lower achievement (baseline study) are in fact the consequences of gender discrimination faced by girls on account of traditional gender role perceptions to which most adults (parents, teachers, curriculum developers, book writers, administrators, community leaders) hang on. If education is to equip girls to become empowered women-self confident, self-reliant, capable of participating in decision-making processes, good communicators and informed leaders-provision would have to be made (a) to provide educational facilities, and (b) to make the content and process of education not only genderbias-free but a consciously designed vehicle of gender equality.

It is relatively easier to provide the school places. It is difficult to change the mind set of the teacher, the textbook writers and administrators about the traditional perceptions about gender- based division of labour, equal abilities and equal opportunities. Being educated they at least subscribe to the utility of educating girls and gender equality in several areas. The toughest task is to change the extra-school factors where interplay of poverty and gender discrimination becomes a lethal combination and leads to withdrawal from or non-enrolment of girls in schools consigning them to domestic roles and closing any possibility of their participating in extra- domestic spheres except as unpaid family workers or poorly paid wage workers as they grow up.

The studies mark a beginning of the process of gender sensitisation and awareness generation from state to district, to block to village slum communities. In six states and 21 districts nearly 40,000 persons interacted on issues of girls' education and women's equality.

MAJOR FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Access

(i.) The problem of access obtains in small sized villages and scattered habitations. Availability of educational and other development infrastruc-

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ture of health, ICDS, water, electricity, roads, women's development groups/programmes is almost nil in villages with population less than 100 and increase.,, with the population size of the villages. Villages with, thousand or more population are better endowed and have higher levels of literacy and schooling facilities at least up to middle and even high school level,

(ii.) Very large villages have a problem when even two primary schools do not suffice and some valuable sections are left out (girls among them).

(iii.) Rains are a time when attendance drops, as kuccha roads become slushy and almost non-negotiable and at several places little rivulets and nullahs swell up and become dangerous for small children. In one of the Madhya Pradesh districts there were as many as 200 nullahs and villages. Villages with 21 or 25 households, even 40 households had no school within miles. About 16 per cent of villages of Madhya Pradesh have population habitations below 100; 15 per cent in Karnataka, 8 per cent in Assam, 12 per cent in Maharashtra, 22 per cent in Orissa and 7 per cent in Tamil Nadu, 15 per cent for India as a whole and only 0.39 per cent in Kerala. Parents of unserved villages do not want to send their children especially girls for schooling outside the village.

(iv.) Urban slums are worst off and rarely have a school if it comprises recent migrants from villages.

(v.) There is evidence of a growing demand for girls' education. Interviews with parents and group discussions showed that they all wanted with one voice a school where none exists; a middle., school in the, village with a primary school, a high school in villages with a middle school.

(vi.) -The ratio of middle school to primary schools ranges between 1:3 to 1:6 in different states/districts. Girls are not sent outside the village. Primary education would become a dead end for girls unless commensurate facilities are created at the middle level. Middle schools were located at 3 to 8 km distance from smaller villages.

(vii.) Secondary data shows an alarming trend that needs to be reckoned with. Compared to every 100 rural girls in Class II, only 0.22 are found in Class XII in Assam, 0.29 in Haryana, 1.60 in Karnataka and Kerala, 0.04 in Orissa and 2,53 in Tamil Nadu; 1.44 in India as a whole. And, 12 years of general education is a basic requirement for entry into primary teacher training and into other diploma and degree level general and professional courses,

Enrolment and Retention

(i) Enrolment ratios for girls at the primary level vary from 80 Per cent in some districts to 116 per cent.

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(ii.) With the exception of Kerala, drop-out rates for girls are very high and invariably higher than those for boys.

(iii.) The phenomenon of non-enrolment of elementary age-groups is very high in Madhya Pradesh but is also considerable elsewhere except in Kerala.

(iv.) Drop-out takes place largely after a girl is about 10+ or after primary for lack of a middle school.

(v.) The average-underage phenomenon is to the tune of 25 per cent for girls in primary classes.

(vi.) Major Reasons for Continuance of Girls

- Better economic condition of the household.

- Parental education and motivation.

- Parental ability to pay extra tuition costs, provide books, stationery, clothes, create space and time for studies at home.

- Self-motivation of the girl child.

(v.) - Main Reason for Discontinuance of Girls

- Domestic work.

- Inability of parents to provide books, stationery, clothes, extra tuition costs.

- Parental illiteracy, and lack of motivation.

- Helping parents in remunerative work.

- Care of siblings.

- Early marriage (as early as she is `big enough' as measured by a thali in Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, even among certain communities in Kerala, not so much elsewhere).

(viii.) Main Reasons for Non-enrolment of Girls

- Domestic work

- Inability of parents to pay extra tuition costs, provide books, stationery, clothes, shoes, etc.

- Parental illiteracy and lack of motivation.

- Helping parents in occupation.

- Care of siblings.

- Early marriage.

(ix.) Drop-out Girls

- Drop-out girls give similar reasons for discontinuing school. Fetching water and collecting fuel take up a greater part of their time and domestic

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work includes cooking, clearing and washing.

- Most of them left school on account of domestic compulsions of work and poverty.

- Most of them belong to empoverised households.

- Most mothers are illiterate while fathers are relatively less illiterate.

- Drop-out girls belong to large-sized households.

- Drop-out girls are among the first, second or third born at the most. Drop-out girls (nearly all) liked their school and teachers and found them helpful.

- Drop-out girls miss school and majority would like to go back to school, if given a chance.

- Language was their favourite subject and subjects that they disliked most were mathematics and science (EVS).

- Few could read or write but could count up to 10 or 20.

- They get little time to play between myriad tasks and express that parents did discriminate against them and treated their brothers better. The boys were given more food and more time to play. The girls were left behind even when parents went for attending weddings or festivals. Only boys were taken to melas. If they fell ill, no proper medical care was arranged whereas the boys were taken to a doctor.

- The study exonerates the school from `pushing out' girls and it becomes evident that it is the extra-school factors, both economic and cultural (gender discrimination), that `pull out' girls. Because even within the same households, money is found for bearing the extra-tuition costs for boys' schooling at times. Even boys drop out on account of parental poverty. Ten- years-olds and plus start helping in income saving and income-generating tasks of parents.

- Ten years plus and above drop-out girls want to learn incom-generating programmes in addition to literacy and education on health and nutrition. The parents also want this combination.

(x.) Never-enrolled Girls

The girls belong to the poorest of the households with both parents illiterate or a father with a modicum of literacy. In several villages in Sehore and Ratlam in Madhya Pradesh, practically all girls, babies to fourteen/sixteen years were married with sindoor adorning their central parting of hair and increasing kohl and little trinkets. In Haryana, they were eternally working, walking with a pitcher of water on her head, making cow-dung cakes and washing buffaloes-a new-found prosperity item in every rural household after the agricultural boom. The silver lining was that in unseen villages,

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parents were clamouring for a school and said they will send these girls to school, even though they may be married.

(xi.) Household Conditions

- Except for Kerala, the average household size ranged between 5 and 6.

- Drinking water has to be fetched by girls from nearby, or a distance of half to one kilometre and more. In several Madhya Pradesh villages, girls and women had to cover a distance of two to three kilometres at times to get potable water.

- Wood is the main source of fuel, cent per cent reliance on this in several villages. The wood is collected by girls and women, is time consuming and eco- destructive.

- Sanitation and drainage is extremely poor in Madhya Pradesh and Haryana for instance; 95 to 100 per cent households use open spaces for defecation and women have to wait until it is dark causing personal discomfort, often disease. Sexual harassment is another hazard of lack of private or decent public toilets. The situation is better in Kerala, and in Assam most of the households had private latrines, a little unusual but welcome.

Majority of households were poor/low income households in Madhya Pradesh. There were a very small proportion who had annual income above Rs 12,000.

Situation of Girls and Women

Our basic assumption that gender discrimination accounts for lower participation and larger drop-out of girls in primary schooling is borne out by the study. Access of girls to education and their development is contingent on the status accorded to women in a particular group. Only a few salient features of group discussions and interviews with parents, teachers, girls themselves, community leaders and administrators are discussed.

i. All the of 44 districts have low female literacy (including Malappuram, Kasargode and Wayanad compared to other districts in Kerala); male-female differentials are large and rural female literacy rate is half or less than half of urban female literacy rate. In Malappuram the sex ration is 1054, and females form 51.32 of the population, but only 49 per cent of primary enrolments; in Kasargode, with sex ratio of 1026, females account for 51 of the total population but only 48 per cent of primary enrolment.

ii. District data shows a positive relationship between female literacy and

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female age at marriage, female school enrolments and a negative relationship between population growth rate, infant and child morality rate, family size among others.

iii. The national trend of declining sex ratio (an average) is seen very vividly at district level. The sex ratio ranges from 865 to 1054. In Kerala, Wayanad has a sex ratio of 967 compared to 1026 in Kasargode and 1054 in Malappuram. Situation in Assam, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka and Orissa districts is not as grim but in Marathwada districts, Aurangabad, for instance, has sex ratio of 922. All four DPEP districts of Haryana and several districts of Madhya Pradesh have sex ratio as low as 865 to 882. In Jind, Kaithal, Hisar and Sirsa, there are village after village where only 500 girls were found per 1,000 boys in the age-group 0-6 years. Group discussions and interviews with health authorities show that female foeticide has acquired menacing proportions with proliferation of private ultra-sound clinics, amnientesis. These trends if allowed to continue can cause social aberrations and adverse repercussions, the effects of which would become evident much later as is being experienced in the post-one-child family in China. Common people's perception in that ultra-sound machines have been installed by the Government to help reduce the family size. Government hospitals/PHCS are aborthing female foetuses as late as 6-7 months of pregnancy. Dowry was cited as the main culprit for this criminal behaviour pattern.

The district and village level data, for example in Madhya Pradesh, showed that sex ratio was positive to women among the scheduled tribes and even among scheduled castes. Rajnandgaon (Madhya Pradesh) a district with substantial tribal population has sex ratio of over 1030. This, however, only indicates that girls are valued in tribal communities because women are the key actors in keeping subsistence households together and girls help mothers and also fetch a bride price.

iv. The status of women varies in different socio-cultural groups, castes, communities within and among districts. Karnataka DPEP districts report evils of prostitution, Devadasi system. Dowry is eating into the vistas of Kerala and Tamil Nadu, where literacy/education indicators are high. In Rajgarh in Madhya Pradesh, for instance, villages after villages live off on the earnings of girls as prostitues. In Sehore and Chattarpur and practically in all Madhya Pradesh districts nearly all girls were found married (not reported). Child brides and girls with younger siblings in arms was a common sight, so was purdah.

v. Interviews with parents, teachers, educational administrators and community leaders and group discussions indicated that usefulness of educating girls is increasingly being felt. Their reactions were obtained

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on nine positive statements. Parental perceptions (mostly uneducated), were different somewhat from those teachers and administrators. Education of girls is seen as a means of increasing their economic contribution, for development of a positive self-image, ensuring education of future generations and for reducing family size. Parents are unable to appreciate the relationship between education of girls and family's health and nutrition and infant and child mortality, etc. There is lower importance attached to education, preparing girls for leadership and participation in decision-making process and making them aware of their rights. Teachers and administrators and even community leaders have more favourable views.

vi. Interviews with parents, girls, teachers, educational administrators and community leaders brought out their perceptions of gender equality/ discrimination to the fore. Most agreed that girls need equal food (not all), health care and education but not equal freedom and not even equal time to play. All are not sure, whether girls are endowed with equal intelligence and similar abilities and can perform all tasks equally well and boys can have some occupations. There is complete agreement on equal wages but not equal sharing of work within the family. In as much as they oppose equal freedom, there is resistance to joint ownership of assets by wife and husband (Maharashtra has already passed this bill) anywhere and everywhere there was total opposition to female inheritance of property. Even middle class educated persons would give all they have by way of assets to sons; girls are given dowry.

In all, it was evident that educational administrators were most egalitarian followed by community leaders and teachers and parents. Positive responses aggregate for these groups separately, for instance, n Haryana DPEP districts show egalitarian score(0-13) of 8 parents, 10.6 for teachers, 11 for educational administrators and 10.05 for community leaders. The positive gender equality responses may also be taken with a likely pinch of salt, as people may `agree' for forms sake but are not likely to practise equality. But the fact that there are variations among chief respondents, among districts, gives us along with utility of girls' education items an idea as to where to pitch gender sensitisation programmes.

vii. We have already mentioned that drop-out and never- enrolled girls do perceive that they are discriminated against in matters of food, clothes, health care and above all play and entertainment, despite disciaimers from parents who, as the study brings out, have lower educational and occupational aspirations for daughters as compared to sons. Responses on parental expenditure (extra tuition costs) on education of children by

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sex are not very reliable but do indicate relatively higher expenditue on sons as compared to daughters, as data in some districts show. Contrary to some western studies, girls (drop-outs) in our sample did not report any negative attitudes of teachers, and spoke very fondly about their teachers and their helpful attitude. Gender-based divisions of labour and resources is all too evident from the studies and indicate very clearly the disabilities and discrimination faced by girls and women and the need to work with parents, community, teachers and administrators to bring about a positive shift towards gender egalitarian social roles for boys and girls, for men and women.

viii. As is obvious from demographic and educational data, you give females equality and they become more than equal. If. they are allowed to be born and survive age till 5 or 35, they liver longer. If they remain within the educational system, their achivement level equals boys (Baseline Study, Dave's Study) and surpasses literacy, education and even employment do not automatically bestow equality on women. Kerala district reports show that women are conscious of their inferior status despite high literacy, carry the double work-day burden, and are bossed over by men in all situations and have very little say in decision-making.. And all is seen to be well with Kerala women, for they have lesser number of children, of whom very few die. Generally, high literacy levels of mates and females may have caused the demographic transition to lowest population growth rates in the country in this state, but for most of Kerala girls education ends at the high school, less that 2 per cent (1.58) girls making it to CLass XII. And the high- literacy Maharashtra nd Tamil Nadu are getting infamous for female foeticide. so are Haryana and Punjab, the two most affluent states in the country.

The complexity of issues of status of women's equality and the role of education have to be better understood. Not any education, but education which is gender-sensitive and gender-inclusive, with consciously designed curriculum and teacher education combined with social mobilisation can translate the NPE mandate of Education for Women's Equality. The girl child needs Survival, Protection and Development.

District gender studies can help work out districts/state agendas for education and empowerment of girls.

Collection of information on gender bias in (a) textbooks, (b) teacher training, (c) teachers attitude. (d) curriculum transaction, and (e) administrators' attitude

i. Review of Hindi and mathematics textbooks has beer, completed for Haryana. Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Assam have done this exercise.

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Maharashtra has already revised its textbooks.

ii. Gender role perceptions of teachers and administrators have been obtained and analysed.

Identification of supportive community structures such as women groups, VECs, Panchayats, PTAs, Teacher Organisations, Youth Clubs, supporters of UPE amongst girls

Women's groups under Mahila Samakhya are active in some districts of Karnataka. Mahila Mandals in Haryana exist but are totally ineffective. In Madhya Pradesh, these are almost non-existent. Due to paucity of time, only Sarpanchas and Panchayat members were contacted. It is heartening to report that majority of them were aware of most of the programmes for education of girls and women", development. They reported very feeble participation of women in Mahila Mandals and Panchayats. They welcomed opening of NFE Centres for girls and were willing to provide space and other support needed.

Identification and facilitation of convergence of services of different departments for UPE among girls (focal areas : ECCE, Health and Support Services)

At the moment there was near absence of any connection between the Department of Health, Department of Women and Child Development and the school system. There was no coordination between the Anganwadis and the school. The coverage is extremely low, for instance, in Madhya Pradesh, only big villages had one Anganwadi in Haryana, large villages had up to 8-9. Anganwadis and small sized villages had none. Blockwise position shows coverage of 0-6 age-group from 20.48 per cent in Rania block in 39.15 per cent in Baragudha block in district Sirsa, for example.

It is proposed that the timings and approximity of Anganwadis to schools must be coordinated. It is also suggested that non-formal education centre for girls be opened next to the Anganwadis with simultaneous timings.

Availability of educational (books, stationery, uniforms) and other incentives (noon meals, attendance prizes, etc.)

Incentives like free textbooks, stationery, uniform attendance prizes are being given to scheduled caste and scheduled tribe girls. This has had a visible impact on enrolment of scheduled caste girls at the primary stage in Haryana, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra.

In Madhya Pradesh, incentives are being provided to SC and ST children. Impact studies are needed especially where parents are unable to provide for extra

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tuition costs for girls. Maximum number of parents and respondents seek provision of free books, stationery, clothes, even noon meals to all girls for boosting their educational participation.

Participation of women in teaching and administration

i. Proportion of women in primary teachers varies from 15 to 55 per cent in different districts. Participation of women in educational administration at the district and block level is nearly negligible in Madhya Pradesh and very low in other states.

ii. It was found that there were very few women teachers in remote areas. All discussions pointed to the need for atleast one woman teacher in every primary school. Parents were reluctant to send their daughters to single (male) teacher school as they felt that their daughters were not safe especially if the teacher was absent.

Development of state/district level monitoring and evaluation framework

(To be done under MIS) As soon as all data is analysed, indicators for monitoring girls education and women's empowerment shall be developed.

PROGRAMME INTERVENTIONS

1. School Mapping keeping in view special requirements of girls.

2. Multiple Delivery System

(i) Opening of junior primary-part schools, NFE centres voluntary schools for schoolless habitations and villages.

(ii) Access of girls to post-primary and secondary education completing primary or middle schools through upgradation of primary schools (relaxation of 3 km norm)

(iii) Distance mode/open school

(iv) Residential schools for girls in each block headquarter.

3. Bicycles to be provided to girls completing primary schooling for attending middle/high school. This scheme may cause a mini-revolution in making girls physically and mentally mobile and confident. This scheme is being implemented in Tribal Welfare Development blocks in Madhya Pradesh. In a Ratlam tribal village, there was a lone girl who had completed primary education. Her eyes lit up when asked, would she like to go to a middle school, if she had a bike. With or without bicycle, she wanted to study more.

4. Social mobilisation for girls' education.

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- Girl child campaigns

- Increasing parental awareness and participation in educational management.

- Mobilising women, Panchayats, youth, teacher organisation and NGO.

- Media campaigns

5. TLS/adult education efforts to be intensified to remove parental illiteracy, a major hurdle to enrolment and retention of girls.

6. Interdepartmental coordination committee to be headed by the District Collector with DEO as member secretary to ensure :

i. Provision of drinking water within residence/habitation to save female energy and girls' time.

ii. Provision of non-conventional eco-friendly fuel, e.g. biogas to save forests and women and girls from. walking with head-loads of firewood. Not only animal dung (which keeps girls and women busy, collecting and making cow-dung cakes for fuel) but even human excreta can be utilised for generating gas, A combination of Sulabh Shauchalaya and biogas plants could serve community needs and save the school time of girls.

7. Out-of-school adolescent girls need to be reached out through NFE, condensed courses of Central Social Welfare Board, Open School and Balika Yojna (scheme for adolescent girls combining literacy, health and nutrition education and income-generating skill, Department of Women and Child Development, MHRD), to ensure that they complete primary and upper primary education.

8. Intensification of poverty removal and rural development programmes in low female literacy DPEP districts as a complementary strategy (coordination at the state level by Chief Secretaries and District Collectors at the district level). Poor economic condition of parents is a major hinderance to educational participation of girls. Special programmes to be directed at women through DWCRA and setting up of women's cooperatives and women's banks. The reasons for low educational participation of girls are systemic and hence cannot be handled by education alone.

9. Studies may be mounted to assess the level of readiness of communities and states to enforce compulsory education laws. Tamil Nadu had taken an initiative and all children are getting a free noon meal and even free books and uniform.:-

10. In Madhya Pradesh and elsewhere it was noticed that girls are withdrawn at the onset of puberty. Education on management of menarche and reproductive functions for girls (the latter for boys to) should be preceded

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by provision of separate toilets for girls in primary and middle schools.

11. Convergence of Services : UEE, ECCE/ICDS linkages to be forged and operationalised by increasing ECCE coverage and coordinating timings and proximity to the extent possible.

12. Special schemes to be formulated to prepare women teachers for rural areas from rural areas. Madhya Pradesh is considering launching of Shiksha Karmi Programmes with focus on training and upgrading primary, middle pass local persons/girls for teaching in remote areas. Urban women who commute daily to rural areas neither feel themselves as a part of local people nor have the time to interact with them.

13. Incentives like free books, free stationery, uniforms, shoes, waiving off of all extra tuition levies, are demanded by the parents and village communities. A major review of the existing schemes should be carried out before offering such package on a large scale.

14. Research and Development

A. RESEARCH

i. Study of the impact of existing incentive schemes on enrolment and retention of girls.

ii. Study of socialisation patterns and practices derogatory to status of women and to appropriate development of the girl child.

iii. Study of innovation programmes of girls' education.

iv. Study of role of teacher in development of a positive self image in the girl child.

v. Study of gender role perceptions of teachers, teacher educators, educational administrators and community leaders.

B. DEVELOPMENT

i. Removal of gender bias from textbooks and other learning materials for primary (formal, non-formal) and TLC by (a) providing guidelines for gender equality to DPEP administrators, curriculum developers, textbook writers, teacher educators, NFE workers, literacy workers and ECCE workers; (b) developing gender sensitisation materials for orientation of education personnel and the community - parents, women's groups, Mahila Mandals, VECs, Panchayats; and (c) developing of girl child campaign materials.

ii. Preparation of gender inclusive examplar materials for primary (formal, non-formal) and TLC.

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iii. Preparation of handbooks for teachers

iv. Development of tools for monitoring of girls' education and women's empowerment in DPEP.

v. Preparation of inputs for pre-service and in service training of teachers (Based on analysis of existing teacher education programmes).

C. TRAINING AND EXTENSION

Training workshops of trainers at state level, multilevel, integrated (state, district, block, village and community).

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