The Hindu : New Delhi News : No blatant discrimination against girl child in North India: survey

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No blatant discrimination against girl child in North India: survey

Staff Reporter

‘However, some amount of subtle prejudice still exists in society’

Parents, in all six regions surveyed, feel education is important for both boys and girls
High percentage of parents feel girls should be economically independent, reveals survey

NEW DELHI: Here’s some good news. There has been a positive trend in the attitude of parents towards the girl child in North India.

Compared to boys, girls “do not face any blatant discrimination” any more in terms of education, health and nutrition facilities being provided to them, reveals a new survey, adding that some amount of subtle prejudice against girl children does still exist in society. The survey, conducted by the Women’s Studies and Development Centre of Delhi University, covered 7, 200 respondents comprising parents and the first girl child of many a family.

The Centre compiled the project report on “Attitudinal difference towards girl child in selected districts in six States of North India” and collated data for all the six centres in Haryana (Kurukshetra), Punjab (Nawan Shehar), Himachal Pradesh (Shimla), Jammu and Kashmir (Jammu) and Rajasthan (Jaipur). These six centres were further divided into rural and urban samples.

“The general trend we have seen is that there has been a lot of improvement in the past many years. There is less of gender discrimination. For instance, the distribution of quantity of food is same in the family. But at the same time, when it comes to quality of food, boys are favoured more,” says Nilima Srivastava, reader at WSDC and principal project coordinator.

“Three-fourths of the sample of girls from all districts said that they found no difference in rearing between them and their brothers. However, rural girls are discriminated more with regard to food and nutrition and exposure to the outside world, while urban girls bear more household work demands,” she adds.

In terms of enrolment, attendance and retention of girls in schools, both boys and girls have nearly the same high percentages of enrolment.

In all the six regions, majority of parents feel that education is important for both boys and girls.

In Jaipur, for instance, 100 per cent parents in both rural and urban survey samples said education is important for children regardless of their gender.

Rural girls are more likely to be at the receiving end in cases of financial constraints.

A high 51.50 per cent of fathers in Jaipur (about 67 per cent from the rural sample) accepted that in the eventuality of any economic hardship they would withdraw their daughter from school.

A positive finding was that a high percentage of parents and girl children themselves are votaries of economic independence for girls.

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