Highlights

• Female foeticide, ill-health and malnutrition, illiteracy and child marriage, are all problems to be addressed.
• Infrastructure projects need long-term finance from the Government and part of the future dividends from such investments can safely be used to address this issue.
• When the Government subsidizes so many groups in such large ways, perhaps a proper subsidy arrangement, which does not call for diversion of any revenues today and to meet the Girl Child requirements from the future dividends of the infrastructure companies, is the order of the day.

Quotations for Consideration

“A Nation’s progress is impossible without trained and educated mothers and if the women of my country are not educated, about half the population will be ignorant.” – Napoleon Bonaparte

“Making sure that mothers are educated means we can lift more people out of poverty and build a more inclusive and sustainable society.” – Peng Liyuan.

“It is by standing up for the rights of girls and women that we truly measure up as men.” – Bishop Desmond Tutu.

“If you want something said ask a man; if you want something done, ask a woman.” – Margaret Thatcher.

“When girls don’t go to school, they earn lower salaries. They get married earlier. They have higher infant and maternal mortality rates.” – Michelle Obama.

“… the rights of girls and women is the unfinished business of the 21^st. Century.” – Hillary Clinton.

We should therefore seek to bring about an attitude recognizing the value of a girl child and provide facilities ensuring that not a single girl remains unappreciated and uneducated.

Background

In ancient India women had equal status and rights, However, over time, increased religiosity led to fear of the questioning attitude of the people, hence, to a devaluation of Science and Technological education and development, even banning overseas travel and greatly restricting the freedom of women.

Such restrictions were even more strictly enforced over the past thousand years and more because of invasions by brutal and barbaric invaders when it became necessary to protect the womenfolk. Keeping them indoors and enforcing the ‘Purdah’ system became extensively and strictly practiced. Women soon lost even the little rights they had till then.

Today, over most of India, it is not a bride price that is paid, but a dowry that is demanded and with a culture that hence, sees the girl child as some other family’s wealth, the birth of a girl child, especially in a poor family, is not seen as the coming of a ‘Lakshmi’ (Goddess of wealth and prosperity) as it was seen in ancient times, but as a burden to be got rid of at the earliest. This attitude has led to abortions, to baby-killing, to keeping the girls underfed and under educated and finally to child marriages.

Key Concepts

It is time the Government came up with a plan to change such a mindset once and for all. To make the birth of a girl child once again be a promise of the coming of ‘Lakshmi’. A plan, that would make it worthwhile for the poor family to invest in her wellbeing, if only with the expectation of a good return at the right time. Allow her to be welcomed into her marital family at the right age and finally enable her to be able to support her own family.

If such a plan can be linked properly to the long-term funding required for Infrastructure Projects, no additional revenues need to be called for to achieve this objective.

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