From: udcrusd@meaddata.com (Sylvia D'Cruz)
Subject: A GLIMMER OF HOPE IN THE LIFE OF THE GIRL CHILD
Organization: Mead Data Central, Dayton OH
Date: Tue, 7 Apr 1992 20:13:51 GMT
Distribution: soc.culture.indian

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                      Copyright 1992 Inter Press Service
                              Inter Press Service

                           March  18, 1992, Wednesday

INDIA:  A GLIMMER OF HOPE IN THE LIFE OF THE GIRL CHILD

by Mahesh Uniyal

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   Things are changing but ever so slowly for the girl child in  India.

   A countrywide study reveals that contrary to the long-held view that a girl
child, particularly in poor families, is married before she turns 18, child
marriage has been found confined to small pockets and in conservative Indian
communities.

   Further, more and more parents are sending their daughters to school as they
begin to realize that education is the key to building a better life, the
study commissioned by the Indian Ministry of Human Resource Development notes.

   But a lot remains to be done as gender still traps millions of girls in a
life of physical drudgery and abuse, illiteracy and poor health. Out of 395
million Indian children under 19 years, about 190 million are girls.

   "Gender quality is still a distant dream. Despite the general schemes and
programs of the government, despite the enthusiasm of voluntary agencies and
activists, the benefits of development have not reached women and girls," says
the study.

   The report took two years to complete, and has surveyed 13,000 girls and
their families in 13 of  India's  24 states.

   Its findings will enable the government to design an action plan addressing
the needs and problems of the girl child in the 1990s, the "Decade of the Girl
Child" in South Asia, say officials here.

   Increased social concern is the most effective way to fight gender
discrimination, the report reiterates. Further, non-governmental interventions
can catalyze a change in attitudes to the girl child and change her social
circumstances, it adds.

   In all South Asian countries except Sri Lanka, the girl child is considered a
social burden. Female children are discriminated against in many ways, even in
the distribution of food at home.

   A large proportion of the girls interviewed for the study complained they
were not allowed enough time to play, were forced to drop out of school and made
to believe they were less valued than a male child.

   Girls are also victims of child abuse -- beaten and raped by drunken fathers
and later by husbands.

   Some of the families surveyed had married daughters to mentally-retarded and
chronically-ill men. Under Hindu customs, weddings are decided by family and
village elders, a woman has no choice in the matter of selecting a husband.

    India  has an over 40 million-strong child labor force. But girls are a
small proportion of the total even though a girl child works as much as 17 hours
a day, cooking, cleaning, fetching water, and caring for siblings.

   Most mothers quizzed by surveyors said their daughters "do nothing" at home.

   Despite a marginally higher life expectancy for women (55.7 years), the
deep-entrenched gender bias has skewed  India's  demographic profile, say
experts.  India's  decennial  census  survey in 1991 reveals there are far less
women than men in the country.

   The sex ratio has declined from 933 women to a 1,000 men in 1981 to 929
women. The ratio has been sliding since the beginning of the century, except in
the 1940s and the 1970s when the fall was temporarily arrested.

   The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) estimates that a million female
children die in  India,  Pakistan and Bangladesh because of neglect.

   The Indian study observes that in a society where a male child is cherished,
mothers are likely to breastfeed their infant daughters less often than sons.

   In the populous central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and northern Uttar
Pradesh, part of the politically-influential Hindi belt, fewer girls than boys
are admitted to primary school and nearly half of the former are pulled out
before they complete the first five years of education.

   The government has been trying to establish a more egalitarian relationship
between the two sexes.

   A countrywide "Integrated Child Development Service" (ICDS) centers delivers
a package of health, nutrition and schooling to under six-year-olds and their
mothers.

   About $129 million were spent on the ICDS last year and the scheme is being
expanded to include adolescent girls.

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Sylvia D. D'Cruz                                
Mead Data Central                               Systems & Product Technology
Bldg. VI, 9595 Springboro Pike                          udcrusd@meaddata.com
Miamisburg, Ohio 45342                                        (513) 865-6800   
                                               
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