The Importance of Girl Child Education: Empowering Future Leaders
- nimirweraise
- Apr 4, 2024
- 3 min read
It might seem like you hear about "women empowerment" everywhere. When you open social media, you see at least one post or a reel or story about "women empowerment". As much as it's spoken about, we still have a long way to go. Taliban has banned girls from studying beyond grade six in Afghanistan. In lower-income families in India, boys will be favoured to get an education over girls. In many countries, girls are made to drop out of school due to a lack of bathrooms or sanitation in schools and colleges. We haven't had a female president yet in the country considered the world's superpower The United States of America.
Only when we bring women to the table, can we make parity a reality. Talent and hard work should be prioritised rather than gender. A woman who is educated and financially independent is seen as a threat still in our society. But the truth is, a woman who is educated and financially independent can transform society.
Wondering how? Let us educate ourselves one issue at a time.
Health
Education helps create health awareness in women. Educating girls about periods helps them take care of their bodies. When women become aware of postpartum depression, they can reach out for help. A well-informed woman can do her part in creating a healthy household. A healthy household leads to a healthy society which leads to a healthy country and world.
Do you now realise it's not just about women and it's about all of us? Are you still finding it difficult to comprehend? Keep reading...
Economic growth
Educating a girl makes her confident and leads her to have better economic opportunities. Times have changed so much that no job requires a specific gender. Anything and everything only require learning and hard work. For a family under the low-income category, this could improve their lifestyle contributing to the country's GDP too. Gender equality is not just about women, it is and should be the way forward for all of us.
Change is like a ripple and a vicious cycle, and education is the key to change. We should educate boys and men to be a flag bearer for equality. More so, girls and women need to have an education.
The female literacy rate has increased in India significantly. According to The World Bank, as of 2022, although 88.8% of girls and 85.8% of boys complete lower secondary education, adult literacy is lower among women than men in India. We can make further progress if we invest in faculty development, avail the prevailing government schemes and bring reforms to the existing structure of higher education.
Despite being shot by the Taliban; Malala Yousafzai did not stop educating herself and being the youngest education activist with a Nobel Peace Prize. The USA's first female Vice President Kamala Harris mentioned, "While I may be the first woman in this office, I will not be the last".
Here is a list of a few Indian women who made an imprint for themselves and engraved a path for other women.
1. Justice M. Fathima Beevi - First female judge to be a part of the Supreme Court of India, 1989
2. Sarla Thukral - First Indian Woman to fly an aircraft, 1936. Remarkably, she was clad in a Saree.
3. Mary Kom - First Indian Female Boxer to win the gold medal at the Asian Games in 2014
4. Bachendri Pal - First Indian Woman to climb the commit of the world's highest mountain, Mt Everest in 1984
5. Durba Banerjee - First Indian Woman commercial pilot in 1966
6. Shankuntala Devi - First Indian Recorded Mathematician in 1982. She was also fondly known as the "Human Computer."
7. Surekha Yadav - First Indian Female Train Driver in 1988 and Asia's first female locomotive pilot in 2023
And they are not the last!
We have heard or seen many first-hand stories of women who fought for their rights and made a place for themselves. To be able to fight and provide for themselves and to help others, women need to be educated. Importance of girl child education and the change starts with us!
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