Girls worst hit in access to eduduring pandemic: Parl panel

 Girls worst hit in access to eduduring pandemic: Parl panel

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Ambika.Pandit@timesgroup.com

27.01.2022

New Delhi: As the surging third wave puts the focus back on the pandemic’s impact on children’s education, the findings of a parliamentary committee highlights how the Covid crisis has disproportionately affected girls, especially their education.

The committee on women empowerment, in its report presented during the winter session of Parliament in December, called for urgent measures to prevent girls from poor families, impacted by closure of schools and lack of digital access, from dropping out of school.

On a specific question about the effect of the pandemic on enrolment and retention of girls in schools, especially from among the sociallyand economically-backward groups in  schools, the education ministry submitted before the panel that “school closure in India affected 320 million children enrolled from pre-primary to tertiary levels of education. It has been estimated that of these, about 158 million are female students”.

The submissions and recommendations are part of the report on ‘Empowerment of Women Through Education with Special Reference to Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao Scheme’. The committee has observed that in the post pandemic scenario, the probability of more adolescent girls dropping out of school permanently to help with household tasks and childcare due to economic hardships of their families is very high.

The panel has recommended incentivising participation that can help more girls continue their schooling with measures like targeted scholarships, conditional cash transfers, provision of bicycles, access to smart phones and hostel facilities.

The panel observed that as per the ‘unified district infor mation system for fducation (UDISE )’ data for 2018-19, the gross enrolment ratio of girls decreased from 96. 72 in elementary classes to 76. 93 in secondary classes and to 50. 84 in higher secondary classes. It also pointed out that the dropout ratio of girls during 2019-20 was 15. 1. Times View:

This is another worrying example of the socially disastrous fall-outs of the pandemic. Authorities must take suitable steps to ensure that girls aren’t forced to drop out. In the long term, it would gravely hurt the nation’s interests.