Pehchan: An Alternative Education to Girl Children in India
Vimal Khawas
Education is the manifestation and perfection of the knowledge. It is the basis of overall socio-economic upliftment of human beings. Hence, education should be seen from the broadest perspective of overall socio-economic and environmental advancement. My recent visit to some villages in the Phagi and Chakshu blocks of Jaipur district in Rajasthan reconfirmed the above points. I was there as a coordinator of the UNICEF interns to evaluate the alternative education or informal education imparted through the local NGOs under a project: Pehchan or Identity.
India has been quite notorious as far as the women’s empowerment is concerned- be it social, economic or environmental empowerment- since historic past. Unprecedented gender gap in literacy rate, early marriage of the girls in rural India, second rated treatment within the household, lack of voice of a woman in the decision making process at the household and the community level, poor health and hygiene etc. even at present times reflect the degree and intensity of the situation with respect to women’s empowerment in the country.
Rajasthan often provides pertinent examples in the country in this connection. One of the most pressing issues in the state with respect to the women’s empowerment has been the unprecedented numbers of out of school girl children. The reasons may be various-ranging from economic to socio-cultural. Aware of this very fact the state government of Rajasthan conducted a state-wide survey in the year 2000 in this regard. Surprisingly, about 20000 out of school girls were found in the rural part of Jaipur district. These girls were either school dropped out or who never went to schools. Consequently, the district collector approached UNICEF with an idea of a project to provide education to these girls. Accordingly, UNICEF designed a project known as Pehchan to be implemented on a pilot basis in two blocks of Jaipur rural district namely, Chaksu and Phagi blocks, with the expectation of its subsequent scale up to the entire district. The task was taken up by Dighantar in Phagi and by CULP in Chaksu block with the financial support from UNICEF.
The project is in force since August 2002. The overall goal of Pehchan Project is to support the ongoing efforts of the state government in achieving Universal Elementary Education (UEE), specifically focussing on out of school girls aged between 9-14 years. The project runs bridge courses in Pehchan Salas (alternative learning centres) and prepares them for mainstreaming in government schools according to their age and academic abilities, besides imparting life skills to the adolescent girls. Apart from this, the project also sensitises and influences the communities and the government school system to address the larger social and gender issue to help eliminate gender and caste/class disparity in education. Thus the project works with three major components: Girl children (9-14 yrs), Communities and Government Schools.
In less than 3 years time the project has shown some tangible results. Apart from mainstreaming over 60 percent out of school girls, the project has brought about qualitative and quantitative changes. The qualitative impact is observed at the behavioural and attitudinal changes in the girl children. Today, these girls feel more independent, have better sense of health & hygiene, can talk to the strangers, are more confident, have the basic understanding about the value of education, are more aware about the gender issues and most importantly have started questioning many social taboos at the household and community levels. At the community level we observed people have become more aware about the importance of girls’ education at individual, household and societal levels.
The quantitative impacts were seen in terms of increased access to quality education, and the ability of the girls to read and write without much hesitation. Discussion with the community members and the girls themselves showed that the girls can now maintain the basic household accounts, can go to the nearest market and do the necessary shopping, can bargain with the shop keepers, can read the bus numbers, letters and medicinal prescriptions etc.
The project is, however, not free from some inherent socio-economic constraints like dropping out of the trained teachers and the students, marriages of the pechansala girls and subsequent drop out, household duty of the girls, herding the sheep and goats etc. Location of the government schools far away from the village has been the other pertinent force that has often discouraged the parents to allow their daughters to be mainstreamed after the completion of the Pehchansalas. Furthermore, UNICEF has made up its mind to discontinue the project in Phagi and Chaksu blocks of Jaipur district in December 2005 and extend it to the Tonk district.
It is highly recommended that project of this nature needs to be supported for at least about a decade to witness its real impact. The degree and intensity of the financial support can, however, be gradually reduced with time. Finally, the responsibility has to be taken by the Gram Panchayat and the community. Further, the project needs to be replicated to other districts of the state where it is necessary. Situations in the states like Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand and Orissa are no better than Rajasthan. The Pehchan model of alternative education to adolescent girls can be thought of in these states too.
Education is the manifestation and perfection of the knowledge. It is the basis of overall socio-economic upliftment of human beings. Hence, education should be seen from the broadest perspective of overall socio-economic and environmental advancement. My recent visit to some villages in the Phagi and Chakshu blocks of Jaipur district in Rajasthan reconfirmed the above points. I was there as a coordinator of the UNICEF interns to evaluate the alternative education or informal education imparted through the local NGOs under a project: Pehchan or Identity.
India has been quite notorious as far as the women’s empowerment is concerned- be it social, economic or environmental empowerment- since historic past. Unprecedented gender gap in literacy rate, early marriage of the girls in rural India, second rated treatment within the household, lack of voice of a woman in the decision making process at the household and the community level, poor health and hygiene etc. even at present times reflect the degree and intensity of the situation with respect to women’s empowerment in the country.
Rajasthan often provides pertinent examples in the country in this connection. One of the most pressing issues in the state with respect to the women’s empowerment has been the unprecedented numbers of out of school girl children. The reasons may be various-ranging from economic to socio-cultural. Aware of this very fact the state government of Rajasthan conducted a state-wide survey in the year 2000 in this regard. Surprisingly, about 20000 out of school girls were found in the rural part of Jaipur district. These girls were either school dropped out or who never went to schools. Consequently, the district collector approached UNICEF with an idea of a project to provide education to these girls. Accordingly, UNICEF designed a project known as Pehchan to be implemented on a pilot basis in two blocks of Jaipur rural district namely, Chaksu and Phagi blocks, with the expectation of its subsequent scale up to the entire district. The task was taken up by Dighantar in Phagi and by CULP in Chaksu block with the financial support from UNICEF.
The project is in force since August 2002. The overall goal of Pehchan Project is to support the ongoing efforts of the state government in achieving Universal Elementary Education (UEE), specifically focussing on out of school girls aged between 9-14 years. The project runs bridge courses in Pehchan Salas (alternative learning centres) and prepares them for mainstreaming in government schools according to their age and academic abilities, besides imparting life skills to the adolescent girls. Apart from this, the project also sensitises and influences the communities and the government school system to address the larger social and gender issue to help eliminate gender and caste/class disparity in education. Thus the project works with three major components: Girl children (9-14 yrs), Communities and Government Schools.
In less than 3 years time the project has shown some tangible results. Apart from mainstreaming over 60 percent out of school girls, the project has brought about qualitative and quantitative changes. The qualitative impact is observed at the behavioural and attitudinal changes in the girl children. Today, these girls feel more independent, have better sense of health & hygiene, can talk to the strangers, are more confident, have the basic understanding about the value of education, are more aware about the gender issues and most importantly have started questioning many social taboos at the household and community levels. At the community level we observed people have become more aware about the importance of girls’ education at individual, household and societal levels.
The quantitative impacts were seen in terms of increased access to quality education, and the ability of the girls to read and write without much hesitation. Discussion with the community members and the girls themselves showed that the girls can now maintain the basic household accounts, can go to the nearest market and do the necessary shopping, can bargain with the shop keepers, can read the bus numbers, letters and medicinal prescriptions etc.
The project is, however, not free from some inherent socio-economic constraints like dropping out of the trained teachers and the students, marriages of the pechansala girls and subsequent drop out, household duty of the girls, herding the sheep and goats etc. Location of the government schools far away from the village has been the other pertinent force that has often discouraged the parents to allow their daughters to be mainstreamed after the completion of the Pehchansalas. Furthermore, UNICEF has made up its mind to discontinue the project in Phagi and Chaksu blocks of Jaipur district in December 2005 and extend it to the Tonk district.
It is highly recommended that project of this nature needs to be supported for at least about a decade to witness its real impact. The degree and intensity of the financial support can, however, be gradually reduced with time. Finally, the responsibility has to be taken by the Gram Panchayat and the community. Further, the project needs to be replicated to other districts of the state where it is necessary. Situations in the states like Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand and Orissa are no better than Rajasthan. The Pehchan model of alternative education to adolescent girls can be thought of in these states too.
posted by Vimal Khawas at 12:25 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home