![]() ![]() This may be connected to the dowry system in India where dowry deaths occur when a girl is seen as a financial burden. The Indian census data also suggests there is a positive correlation between abnormal sex ratio and better socio-economic status and literacy. The Indian census data indicates that the sex ratio is poor when women have one or two children, but gets better as they have more children, which is result of sex-selective "stopping practices" (stopping having children based on sex of those born). The western states of Maharashtra and Rajasthan 2011 census found a child sex ratio of 113, Gujarat at 112 and Uttar Pradesh at 111. The child sex ratio is within the normal range in all eastern and southern states of India, but significantly higher in certain western and particularly northwestern states such as Maharashtra, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir (118, 120 and 116, as of 2011, respectively). According to the decennial Indian census, the sex ratio in 0 to 6 age group in India has risen from 102.4 males per 100 females in 1961, to 104.2 in 1980, to 107.5 in 2001, to 108.9 in 2011. The natural sex ratio is assumed to be between 103 and 107 males per 100 females, and any number above it is considered suggestive of female foeticide. The research also indicated an overall decline in preference for sons in the time period. The research found that 86.7% of these foeticides were by Hindus(80% of the population), followed by Sikhs(1.7% of the population) with 4.9%, and Muslims(14% of the population) with 6.6%. A research by Pew Research Center based on Union government data indicates foeticide of at least 9 million females in the years 2000-2019. It plans to hold regular discussions with parents “on social issues like child marriage, not sending girls to high school or for further studies.Female foeticide in India ( Hindi: भ्रूण हत्या, romanized: bhrūṇ-hatyā, lit.'foeticide') is the abortion of a female foetus outside of legal methods. ![]() According to reports in the Indian media, the Maharashtra State Bureau of Textbook Production and Curriculum Research has revised textbooks for first and second grades to show men and women sharing household chores, and to portray women as professionals rather than just housewives.Ī draft of the new National Education Policy, which is out for public consultation until June 30 and which will replace the existing NEP (last revised in 1992), is also hoping to shift focus to girls’ access to education and the role gender stereotypes and housework play in girls dropping out of schools. Some of those efforts are already underway. It also involves plugging all loopholes, including the availability of free or affordable alternate caregivers for working women and modernizing the education system all over the country, including an overhaul of textbooks that push through gender-typical roles. It involves changing social mindsets and making housework a task shared among all genders. India could add a whopping $770 billion to the country’s GDP by 2025 by encouraging girls to study and participate in the workforce according to McKinsey’s gender parity report last year.īut the task is mighty. “Girls who do two hours of housework per day have a 63 percent probability of finishing secondary school,” the 2018 report said. And much of this is either shared or shouldered by young girls like Neha, who should ideally be in school. Housework accounts for 85 percent of the time women in India spend on unpaid care work, the 2018 report found. That’s almost three times more than the global average. In its 2015 report on gender inequality in India, the McKinsey Global Institute found that Indian women perform nearly 10 times the unpaid care work as men. The burden of housework on Indian girls is a spiraling crisis for India. ![]() “Adolescence is an important transitioning phase and girls are not allowed to be involved in any kind of constructive work important for development of our nation and are confined to household work,” the report said.Ĭurrently, Indian women contribute only 18 percent to the country’s GDP - one of the lowest in the world - and only 25 percent of India’s labor force is women. In a report last year, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights had said around 40 percent of 15 to 18-year-old-girls were out of school and among them almost 65 percent were engaged in household work. As their mothers step out to work - in the informal sector or as farmers or agricultural laborers - to substantiate the family income, underprivileged girls like Neha are shouldering the burden of care and housework. The RTE has no provision for banning housework or agricultural work for children. But the RTE failed to acknowledge, and therefore address, the most pressing reason why girls have been unable to go to school in India: housework. ![]()
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