The Hindu : New Delhi News : ‘Urban girl child more vulnerable’

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Sunday, Aug 05, 2007
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New Delhi

‘Urban girl child more vulnerable’

Parul Sharma

NEW DELHI: The urban girl child here in the Capital is more “vulnerable” than her rural counterpart in terms of education and social status, according to a recent survey done by Delhi University’s Women’s Studies and Development Centre (WSDC).

According to the Delhi Chapter’s project report on “Attitudinal Difference towards Girl Child in Selected Districts of North India”, when asked whether they would motivate girls for education, 10.05 per cent of rural fathers said they would encourage their daughters to study as compared with 8.72 per cent of urban fathers.

Similarly, as many as 19.70 per cent of rural mothers said they would motivate their daughters for education, while in urban areas, the percentage was only 7.22 per cent.

The survey was conducted in nine areas each, including both urban and rural, of two districts from the Capital that were selected on the basis of their sex ratio. North East Delhi with a high sex ratio and South West Delhi with a low ratio were chosen for the WSDC project. When it came to expectations from girls’ education, 86.93 per cent of the rural fathers said it would make their daughters more knowledgeable compared with 81.82 per cent of urban fathers who thought so. Interestingly, 72.22 per cent of the urban fathers said education of girls would ensure a good marriage prospectus for their daughters.

Surprisingly, 31.25 per cent of the urban girls as compared to 7.14 per cent of their rural counterparts said it was owing to their parental indifference that they had to drop out of school.

“The urban girl child is a little more vulnerable than the rural girl child. Urban parents are also more parochial than their rural counterparts. They claim to be more progressive but in reality they tend to cling on to their old mindset,” said Nilima Srivastava, Reader at WSDC, who is also the principal project coordinator.

The data for the survey was collected between November 2005 and February 2006 and the father, mother and the girl child of each family in the two Delhi districts were interviewed.

When the girl child was asked if there was a difference in the upbringing between her brother and her, only 8.85 per cent of rural girls responded in affirmative, while in the urban areas this percentage was 15.14 per cent.

As many as 80.65 per cent of urban girl children felt that their brothers were given more exposure to the outside world than them and the percentage was only 27.78 per cent in case of their rural counterparts. Asked if they were cursed for being a girl, the higher percentage was in the urban areas -- 19.35 per cent -- compared with 11.11 per cent in rural areas.

However, in some cases like giving approval to love marriage by their daughters, the percentage was higher in urban parents compared with the rural ones.The WSCD would soon also compile the research project on other districts of North India.

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