indian council of medical research - Pondicherry University DSpace ...

jcl Education and the g~rl child
A g~rls educat~on faces a number of economlc cultural sxlal and psycholog~cal
barriers especially ~n the context of rural lndla The female l~leracy rate IS 37 7% as
aga~nst the male llteracy of 65 5% (Park 1997)
The percentape of enrollment In
pnmary and m~ddle school for girls IS
79 9% and 35 6% respedlvely and the
conespondlng f~gures for males are 106 4% and 60 6% (UNICEF,1990) It has been
estimated that of all the g~rls enrolled only 58 0% reach grade V in India agalnst a
global average of 68 0% (UNICEF 1994b)
In all the states ~n India includ~rig Kerala, girls had a lower attendance rate than boys.
1 tie d~ffererice between the attendance rate of g~rls and boys was reported to be very
w~de In some states l~ke Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan The lowest difference was
reported frorn Kerala (UNICEF.1990). A survey of teenage girls in Pune showed that
g~rls received almost equal educational opportunities as boys (Kanitkar, 1996)
However, the results of the study cannot be generalized particularly since. ~t was
conducted in a populat~on of middle and high income status, and the sample slze was
also low
llle dropout rate was also very h~gh In g~rls particularly In those from rural areas In
Rajasthan the dropout rate In girls was as h~gh as 57 O%(UNICEF,1990) In rural lnd~a
girls who were l~kely to be withdrawn from school would belong to famllles wlth little or
no land resources These chlldren joln the unorganized chlld labor force Work force
Dartlc~patlon rate for girls ~n the age group 11-13 years was h~gher than that of boys In
both rural and urban areas Cornpanson of the work partlclpat~on rate of male and