Why raise money for girls’ education in India?
written by Dallas Rogers for the BASEClimb 3 project

“Female literacy and education can help empower women not only in their lives, but in their opportunity to live… there is agreement among scholars that empowerment of women improves their agency and reduces gender biased mortality.” (3)

Gender and education - the facts

The impact of gender bias within education in developing countries has been widely reported by human rights organisations, government bodies and relief agencies world wide. These reports outline the magnitude and disparity that girls experience when accessing education globally. Nowhere is this more evident that in India where girls are systematically restricted or excluded from attending school. This practice has resulted in India having “one of the highest female to male literacy gaps in the world”(1). Without education girls are powerless to break out of poverty and are vulnerable to exploitation including child trafficking and prostitution. Leading humanitarian organisations agree:

• In India, one-third of all children aged 6-14 do not attend school. This equates to 36 million girls. (2)
• Of the 110 million children in the world who are not in school, two thirds of them are girls. (1)
• Only 35% of women in India are literate, compared to 64% of men. (2)
• Of the world’s 875 million illiterate adults, two thirds are women. (1)
• As of the year 2000, every second illiterate person in the world lives in India. (2)
While the facts are clear and easy to understand, the cause and long-term costs are more complicated. Social and cultural factors in India commonly favour sending boys to school. Additionally, extreme poverty and limited resources force families to prioritorise the education of their sons. In India, under these conditions, girls are often married early to secure a dowry or are at risk of child trafficking and/or prostitution. Education is widely accepted as a precursor for addressing gender bias and discrimination.

Infanticide, violence against girls and child prostitution

"Violence against women cuts across social and economic situations and is deeply embedded in cultures around the world —
So much so that millions of women consider it a way of life." (6)
The facts
The social and cultural preference for a boy child in India is so pronounced that an estimated 40 million (1) women are missing as a result of pre-natal sex selection or infanticide (the act of killing a newborn baby).

• Tests that tell the gender of a foetus are used by parents in India to abort unwanted females. (4)
• In India three million female foetuses are aborted each year. (9)
• Statistics for India indicate 933 women for every l, 000 men. (2)

Violence against girls in India ranges from clear and apparent to subliminal and sinister. “Girls are subjected to different kinds of discrimination, abuse and exploitation because they are girls.”(5) Violence as a tool of manipulation and exploitation is specifically relevant to girls in India, where religious custom and social and cultural practice results in much violence against girls going unreported. The trafficking of girls into prostitution is almost always accompanied by violence and it is estimated that a “quarter of the total number of prostitutes (in India) are minors”.(7) Additionally girls are at significant risk at times of natural disaster or emergency due to reduced law enforcement and temporary breakdowns in social norms.

In India:
• An estimated 57% of girls marry before turning 18 years old. (10)
• Rape within marriage is not a criminal offence according to Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code. (8)
• Child brides are frequently removed from education and married to older men. (10)
• There are close to 15,000 dowry deaths estimated per year. (8)
• In the Devadasi system young girls are pledged to temples (to a god or a goddess) for life at an early age by their parents and become temple prostitutes. (8)
• Trafficking of women and girls is one of the fastest-growing and increasingly profitable types of organized crime in the world. (8)
• Following the tsunami in southern India and the northern Indian earthquake, leading relief agencies dispatched child protection officers to affected areas, highlighting the danger faced by children in emergency situations.

The way forward

In India, one of
“the main causes of poverty is illiteracy” (11)

In India, a country with almost 1 billion people, “an estimated 350 - 400 million”(11) people live below the poverty line, subjecting them to extreme poverty and disadvantage. This disadvantage is compounded if you are female. Although large-scale poverty reduction programs are necessary throughout India, the need for educating young girls and women is paramount. It is widely accepted that the impetus for gender based social change is empowerment and to empower young girls and women it is essential to provide formal and informal education. Without coordinated and structured education programs for young girls and women social disadvantage, violence and discrimination will continue. By providing education options the lives of millions of girls living below the poverty line will be changed.

What you can do
by Heather Swan

I've been to India a number of times. Our most recent trip was in April 2005. I noticed a big difference in the number of child beggars around the airports, but was saddened to realise they may have just moved to the shiny new Western style shopping centres which have sprung up all over New Delhi. These glass monuments to the multi-national big brands stand in sickening contrast to the street slums on their doorstep. So many children, particularly girls living on the streets, begging for food seemingly without prospect for change and I felt hopeless to make any difference.

Then I learned that education can make the difference. I learned of an orphanage for girls where the philosophy is education as a vehicle to independence. The school teaches girls the basic education we take for granted but also skills that can be used to earn a reasonable living and a measure of freedom. Just $10,000 Australian dollars will make a big difference to the number of girls they can accommodate, so that became my goal. If the BASEClimb 3 project can raise that money we will make a real difference to many girls lives. With so many worthy causes competing for donations I feel it's a realistic goal (that I hope we can surpass), and then add on to in the years to come.

We receive many emails from people who've enjoyed our programmes and been inspired by what we've done. We're always touched and honoured by those messages. It's my hope that each of those people will donate even $1.00 to the BASEClimb 3 Fund for Girls Education in India. If that's you please click on the link below - no amount is too small and 100% of what we raise will go to the school.

20% of every book purchase and 10% of every DVD and video sold will go toward the fund.

For those of us in Sydney we will be holding a 'Climbathon' and a 'Jumpathon' in late March to raise the bulk of the money. More details and dates will be available soon. If you'd like to pre-register your interest please email us.

Amnesty International. Making Violence Against Women Count- Facts and Figures.
Available at: http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGACT770362004?open&of=ENG-373 (8)

International Centre for research on Women. Too Young to Wed.
Available at: http://www.icrw.org/photoessay/html/facts.htm (10)

New Internationalist. Girls: The Facts.
Available at: http://www.newint.org/issue240/facts.htm (4)

Save the Children. Violence Against Girls.
Available at: http://www.savethechildren.net/india/key_work/viol.html (5)

The Coalition Against Trafficking in Women. Trafficking and Prostitution in Asia and the Pacific. Available at:
http://www.catw-ap.org/facts.htm (7)

The Indian Medical Association. Historical Judgement.
Available at: http://www.imanational.com/index.asp (9)

The UC Atlas of Global Inequality. India and Gender Mortality: Large Differences between North and South.
Available at: http://ucatlas.ucsc.edu/gender/gender_india.php (3)

UNFPA.. Chapter 3: Ending Violence against Women and Girls. Available at: http://www.unfpa.org/swp/2000/english/ch03.html (6)

UNICEF. The situation of women and girls: facts and figures.
Available at: http://www.unicef.org/gender/index_factsandfigures.html (1)

United Nations Statistical Institute for Asia and the Pacific. Information Regarding Poverty in India (11)
Available at: http://www.unsiap.or.jp/participants_work/cos03_homepages/group4/boon-india-present.htm

World Literacy Canada. Facts and Figures.
Available at:http://www.worldlit.ca/facts.html (2)