‘He will carry on my family name’
‘Without a son, who will perform my last rites?’
‘A daughter comes with dowry demands. Where will I find lakhs for her wedding?’
Oddly enough, these familiar words don’t just ring through the streets of rural India. Urban India’s multi-storey buildings echo the same thoughts, albeit quietly. The stigma of being born female in India is very real, even amidst the burgeoning economy.
In 2008, National Girl Child Day was announced by the Ministry of Women and Child Development to raise awareness about the sheer discrepancy in the way girl children are treated by families, the community, and society at large. Kirthi J, creator of the Saahas App says, “Whereas foeticide and infanticide may not toll up the same numbers as they did a few years ago, the birth of a girl is still associated with burdensome connotations. Girls are seen as mouths to feed, vehicles of honour and shame to protect, and liabilities to the family - even as the male child is celebrated and coveted. In programming that targets women, the focus is on women above 18, or at most, 16. In programming that targets the youth and children, the focus is on boys. This gives full play to the discrimination they face, starting from birth.”
The discrimination continues lifelong, manifesting in the form of low access to education, health, and sanitation needs, and includes outright violence ranging from domestic and sexual abuse to child marriage. The lived experience of a girl child is compounded by a mix of other identities such as caste, class, religion, mobility, disability, and health, among others.
Menstruation
Access to healthy, clean, and usable menstrual hygiene products remains an issue for girls across India. The NFHS-5 shows a direct link between education, wealth, and hygienic methods of menstrual protection. Only 43.5 per cent of women aged between 15-24 years with no schooling use hygienic methods, and 90.3 per cent with 12 or more years of schooling use hygienic methods to manage their menstrual cycles. This makes them vulnerable to disease and complications in their experiences of menstruation, which is often compounded by little to no access to sustainable healthcare. Says Kirthi J, “Often, the onset of puberty and menarche can cut short a girl's access to education, for reasons that range from safety concerns to infrastructural challenges in the form of the lack of clean toilets and water supply. Menarche is also treated as the age of marriage in some contexts, causing girls to cut short their educational pursuits. This is particularly the case in rural India.” A survey by Darsa noted that the lack of MHM facilities in schools affects the employability of the girls as 23 million of them drop out of school annually due to lack of proper MHM facilities.
Child Sexual Abuse
The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) stated that as many as 148,185 crimes against children were reported in 2019 in the country. Additionally, according to Interpol, an estimated 2.4 million instances of child online sexual abuse were reported between 2017 and 2020. Eighty percent of these were girls under age 14. Most young girls are vulnerable to sexual abuse at the hands of people they know. “In most instances, the exposure of young women to abuse happens in family settings, school settings, and neighborhoods they live in,” says Kirthi J. “However, with the POCSO (Protection of Children against Sexual Offences) Act, the intention is to not only double down on such instances but to prevent the crime from happening altogether. It is a comprehensive law that enables access to justice for children who have faced sexual abuse/violence, and takes into account the child’s best interests and well-being. It is considered a landmark legislation in the area of child protection. Prior to POCSO, there were no laws specifically addressing violence against children. Under POCSO, the ‘burden of proof’ is on the accused and not on the victim. That is, it is for the accused to prove that they did not commit the crime, and not for the victim to prove that the crime happened. POCSO also addresses a whole spectrum of criminal sexual offences targeting children, right from non-touch abuse such as pornography and stalking, to penetrative offences. Lastly, POCSO provides for plenty of child-friendly measures, procedures, and legal infrastructure to ensure that the child faces minimum trauma when they participate in judicial procedures.”
Literacy and Education
“We cannot all succeed when half of us are held back,” said female education activist Malala Yousafzai. GlobalData suggests that Between 2010-2021, the female literacy rate in India increased by 14.4 per cent. Despite these positive developments, there is a gender-based disparity in the Indian education system. A combination of the lack of parental access to education, cultural values, child marriage, a scarcity of feminine hygiene products, lack of safety in school, child labour, and the expectation of girls to remain engaged in caregiving work for their families prevents their substantive access to education. Mahanadi Desai, a student of gender studies from the UK from India says, “Literacy among women in India has so many far-reaching consequences. Not only is their economic progress furthered and do they have autonomy, it offers them day-to-day benefits that may seem small, but are significant. Reading the signs at the bus stop and knowing which one to take. Helping their children with homework. Being able to fill up a form at the doctor’s clinic. Of course, higher studies and skill-building are the need of the hour, but one cannot discount the benefits of simply being able to read, write and comprehend.”
Digital Access
With the COVID-19 pandemic, access to smart devices and digital spaces became essential for education and work, and in several instances, even healthcare. “Digital access is inherently gendered, especially seeing as India has a husband's-phone/wife's-phone phenomenon,” says Kirthi J. “In several households, access to and use of the only or few devices are prioritized for boys and men, leaving girls and women out of the picture almost entirely. The Observer Research Foundation notes that Indian women are 15 percent less likely to own a mobile phone, and 33 percent less likely to use mobile internet services than men. From March 2020 to February 2021, owing to school lockdowns, as many as 320 million students were at risk of dropping out, of which 158 million were girls, owing to the lack of access to digital devices. This lack also paved the way for challenges in booking vaccination slots on time, for women and girls alike.”
Nutrition
According to the 2020 National Family Health Survey (NFHS), malnutrition contributes to under-five mortality rates, which is 8.3 per cent higher for girls than boys. India is the only nation in which this is the case. Since parents of girl children inevitably want to embark on the journey of birthing a male child as soon as possible, girls are breastfed for a shorter duration and consume lesser milk, compromising on nutrition. “Girls bear heavy caregiving burdens from a young age, but are not given as much commensurate nutrition to keep their health on track to match the burden they bear,” says Kirthi J. “This has bodily impacts that transcend the short-term - manifesting as anaemia, low immunity, poor maternal health, and sometimes, even early death. There have been several attempts to address this, such as the Anemia Mukt Bharat and Prime Minister’s Overarching Scheme for Holistic Nutrition (POSHAN) Abhiyaan. Until 2016, 54 per cent of India's adolescent girls were anemic. However, despite the government mandate of consumption of iron-folic acid tablets for 100 days during pregnancy, only 30 per cent were found to be doing so.”
Disaster risk reduction
In situations of climate-induced and natural disaster, families are displaced and lose their means of livelihood. In such situations, girls' education, healthcare, and nutritional needs are almost immediately sacrificed for concerns around safety, prioritisation of the needs of male members in the family, and poverty. For instance, in many instances of flooding, girls were vulnerable to harm because they were never taught to swim, while boys and men are. As seen in the case of the COVID-19 pandemic and in several disasters over time, exposure to disasters has increased the care burden on girls, as well. In many instances, post-disaster, girls have had to fetch water after walking long distances - this was seen to happen in Assam during the floods. The meagre amounts they're able to carry home are prioritised for use toward cooking and men's consumption.
Despite efforts by successive state and central governments to enhance the life and well-being of the girl child, the social stigma of growing up female in India still remains. Says Desai. “Various schemes under the Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao campaign have given some of these girls a breather and a chance at survival and success. But this fails to address the stigma at the root. Unless thought processes change, where parents and societies are truly able to smash the patriarchy in their heads, the saga of the unwanted girl child will carry on.”