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Drawing girls towards education

Drawing girls towards education
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Our beliefs, customs and other irrelevant thoughts hamper girl child’s education

Syed Mustafa Ahmad

Education is as important for a boy as to a girl. Without education, both the boys and girls are at loss. It is a universal fact that the nations that has invested in education have achieved remarkable progress.

In the developing country like India, this mindset has not yet been achieved. In India, there are a lot of students who are not going to schools. They include boys as well as girls. In the same vein, in the UT of Jammu and Kashmir, there are many boys and girls who are not attending schools. They are doing something else.

Some are busy in petty jobs while some are helping their family members in their daily chores. In this case, our village, Hajibagh has set an example. Hajibagh comes under Budgam district. It is well known for being close to the world famous Hokera Wetland.

In our village, parents teach their children with great devotion up to the matriculation examination or to the higher secondary level. Thereafter, there is a decline among these students as most of them, particularly girls fail to make it to college.

The parents are not interested in sending them to institutions of higher learning. They have fears of their own. Their fears are genuine. But all are not true. Reaching this stage has taken a lot of time. But why have we reached this stage? What are the causes responsible for this?

The first main reason that why this stage has reached is that the majority of people in our village are illiterate. They themselves have not been to schools. They feel it that it is wastage of time to send children to the schools or colleges. Basically, it is not their fault. They belong to the poor families. They were denied education due to poverty. Their desires were shattered. In the same vein, they think that their children won’t do anything good. Their lives are almost spent in labor. They are tired now. They don’t believe that there will be a change in the status quo.

The second cause responsible for this behavior is that the teenage girls have not done something remarkable in their studies. They simply qualified the examinations and did not move beyond that. They are as good as illiterate girls. They only have some paper degrees that set them apart from others. In this situation, parents feel that there is no necessity to waste money and time in this futile pursuit.

The third cause responsible for this is that our educational system is not compatible with the modern age. Moreover, it never differentiates between two students. Individual differences are not taken into account in our educational system. The same kind of knowledge is imparted to the different students. In this atmosphere, the majority of the students feel suffocated. Their curiosities are never listened to or ever visualised .Their innovative concepts have no takers. They want to change the status quo but when the opposite takes place, they feel neglected and stop learning. However, they learn in their own domains but in the worldly eyes, they are good for nothing.

The fourth cause responsible for this is that imitation is on rise. A girl imitates another girl in the majority of things. If a girl is forced to leave her education, another girl also follows her. In this way, a chain sets in the society and the result is destruction. This mindset is difficult to understand.

The fifth cause responsible for this is that girls are told that the world is temporary. Education has been differentiated on the basis of the worldly and the religious lines. But I think knowledge is knowledge. It is up to us how to impart it and how to make it cohesive. Dividing knowledge into these narrow groups is not a good idea at all. The consequences of this mindset are that a girl prepares herself for the next world. She loses touch with the present world. She becomes something unique. She finds herself in her own paradise. This attitude is very harmful and has harmed our village a lot.

The sixth and the last cause responsible for this is that we waste our resources in future pursuits. We live religiously. In case of the Muslims, performing Hajj or the annual pilgrimage to Makkah is obligatory once in a life. But what is the need of performing the lesser pilgrimages that are not necessary? Instead, this money should be utilized in teaching the orphans, the girls, the disadvantaged, etc.

In the same vein, we love customs and rituals. Well, it is necessary to preserve one’s culture but it doesn’t mean that we waste our resources in fulfilling these. We can save time and money, if we leave the useless rituals. The money spent here can be utilized in creating a good society.

Saving these girls from destruction should be the priority of everyone. They belong to us, so we have to come forward. We can save them. I have ready. Are you ready?


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