For a Girl in Rural India, Education is a Difficult Pursuit

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JODHPUR, India (CNN, March 17, 2007): Anuradha Rathore knows of no

women doctors in her native village or its surrounding area.

 

Among her 100 classmates at the Sampurnanand Medical College in

Jodhpur, she is one of 30 females.

 

The 20-year-old medical student grew up in Kansera, a remote village

in Rajasthan, India's largest state. At that time, children were able

to go to school only up to the fifth year of primary school, Rathore

said. " Nothing beyond that. "

 

In the last couple of years, educational opportunities have improved

there: A coed school now goes up to grade 8.

 

While India's economy booms, educational opportunities remain out of

grasp for large numbers of rural poor, especially girls, according to

international agencies and researchers.

 

Although government programs are in place to address education and

poverty, they have failed to deliver on a large scale because of a

lack of resources and accountability, a 2005 report by the Childhood

Poverty Research and Policy Centre found.

 

In nine of India's 35 states and territories, illiteracy rates among

women are 50 percent or higher, according to figures from the 2001

India census. By contrast, no state or territory has an illiteracy

rate of 50 percent or higher among males.

 

Caste and geography also play a role in a child's access to education,

international agencies and researchers report.

 

In recent weeks, the government has sought to alleviate economic

disparities between rural and urban areas with a budget plan that

would increase rural, health and education spending by $16.3 billion,

nearly half -- $7.3 billion -- of which would go to education.

 

In Rathore's village, girls are not expected to get an education, and

many end their schooling at grade 6 or 7, she said, referring to 12 to

14-year-olds.

 

" It is basically the old school of thought, " Rathore said in a

telephone interview from Jodhpur, " that a girl is to be married and

studying is a waste of money and resources, and there is no need for

girls to study beyond a certain level. "

 

Illiteracy is the outcome. In Rajasthan, 44 percent of all females are

literate compared to 76 percent of males, the census found.

 

'HARDLY ANY CO-ED SCHOOLS AROUND'

 

That Rathore's village offered education only at the primary level is

not unique, said Thrity Cawasji, a UNICEF assistant communication

officer who translated the conversation between Rathore and CNN. Many

villages, such as Kansera, only have primary schools, and children may

have to travel far to go to secondary schools, she explained -- a

situation that can render education difficult at best when walking is

the only means of getting somewhere.

 

Other factors that contribute to attrition in secondary school,

particularly among girls, are school fees, child marriages, a shortage

of teachers, inadequate toilet facilities -- a basic need, as girls

reach menstrual age -- and the lack of support from parents and the

community, Cawasji said.

 

School fees, which can range from 100-200 rupees (or US $2-$5) per

month in rural areas, added onto the costs of books and possibly

uniforms, can be costly for impoverished families with several children.

 

" If the family can't educate its children, the girls would be pulled

out before the boys, " said Cawasji, adding that girls are considered

more valuable at home.

 

Many parents want to keep boys and girls separate in schools beginning

at the intermediate education level, says Shrimohan Arora, school

manager at the Amar Chand Kanya Intermediate College for girls in

Atrauli, Uttar Pradesh state.

 

The alternative might be no school for girls, Arora acknowledged,

adding that many parents want their daughters to attend Amar Chand Kanya.

 

Even if the parents didn't care about girls mixing with boys,

obstacles would remain for the teenage girl, Arora said.

 

" For intermediate education, there are hardly any coed schools

around, " Arora said. " For boys, there are many schools. " The closest

school for girls only recently opened and is 10 kilometers (6 miles)

away, he added.

 

Conditions at Amar Chand Kanya are basic. Some classroom desks and

seats consist of nothing more than two wooden planks. The main

gathering space has long been the school's courtyard. Three water

pumps and 10 toilets serve 800 girls.

 

" I don't find any complaints, " he said. The most urgent issue he faces

is having enough teachers to serve the students. He's got 20 teachers,

14 rooms and an average classroom with 50-60 students in it.

 

Thanks to a local son's family, the school received a sink area along

with a new space for a lecture room/assembly hall, a library that

replaces what has been described as a closet -- and a computer lab

with six planned computers.

 

" If girls take interest, and we find more girls want education in

computers, we'll add more, " Arora said.

 

FEW ROLE MODELS

 

Rathore, the second-year medical student, suffers from polio, which

she contracted as a toddler, according to UNICEF.

 

Rathore's parents believed that if she were disabled and uneducated,

she'd be in a very difficult situation, she explained. " They thought

it necessary to get an education to overcome that shortcoming, " she said.

 

She studied up to grade 2 in Kansera before her mother decided the

family should move to Jaipur, the state capital, where her father was

working, to continue her studies.

 

Rathore's parents were " different, " she admitted, and relatives also

helped. Back in Kansera, most girls her age are now married. That is

not the case in Jaipur, she said, adding that there she found equal

opportunity for boys and girls, enabling her to pursue her education.

 

Rathore never had role models. But she's been chosen as one of 15

" Girl Stars " in an India-wide campaign that's using 15 films, books

and posters to celebrate girls' education and what females can do. In

short, to create female " icons " of everyday women and girls, according

to Lisa Heydlauff, founder and director of " Going to School, " the

non-profit group behind the project, which is funded by UNICEF.

 

" It's very difficult in India for someone from an underprivileged

background to become a medical student, and her disability didn't hold

her back, " Heydlauff said.

 

That Rathore failed in her first attempt to enter medical school --

and tried again, despite financial difficulties -- was significant,

Heydlauff added.

 

" That her entire family came behind her as a girl and believed that as

a girl she could do this is also quite incredible. "

 

Rathore's desire is to work with the government and serve as a doctor

at the village level. Not necessarily in her own village of Kansera,

she said, but " any village. "

 

SOURCE: CNN. For a girl in rural India, education is a difficult

pursuit. By Elizabeth Yuan, CNN

URL:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/03/15/girl.education/index.html?section=cn\

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