International Day of the Girl Feature
By Terry Nisbett
Should a 12-year-old girl be married? Early marriages and other vulnerabilities have led to the declaration and observance of International Day of the Girl Child. In 2012, the United Nations declared October 11 as a day to “recognise girls’ rights and the unique challenges girls face around the world.” Early marriage is one such challenge. Other areas in which girls can find themselves disadvantaged include education, health and safety.
Still one may ask why there should be a special day for girl children when there is already a Universal Children’s Day. The truth is that in many parts of the world, girls face hardships as a result of their gender. Where school is not free and money is scarce in families, they often choose to educate the boy and not the girl. Even where girls may receive basic primary education, they may not be allowed to get secondary education while boys are more likely to continue their education past primary school. Sometimes, girls receive no formal education. About 63 million girls globally are out of school, according to Global Partnership for Education. In South and West Asia, the majority of girls, at least 80 percent, who are not in school will never get there. The boys fare better as only about 16 percent of those not in school will never start school.
Sometimes there are some very basic reasons for barriers contributing to this lack of schooling. Long distances to be traversed on foot to get to school often present challenges. The round trip journey in some cases covers 15 miles in total, taking some six hours to complete. Students would have to be motivated and well-nourished to survive such a gruelling walk before school started and to get home after and do it again every day for a week. The problem here is sometimes two-fold. The distance itself also leads to the danger of the journey as girls are sometimes attacked and assaulted on the way to school. Families then become reluctant to allow their girls to travel these long distances to school. In such cases, the safety and security of the girl child takes precedence over the education. One cannot blame the parents for keeping the girls at home. As a solution to this problem, Zimbabwe has implemented a program with external assistance which provides bikes to girls and boys who live farthest from schools. The girls can stay in school longer becoming less likely to drop out, and avoid the assaults experienced by some by riding in groups.
The cost of education can also prove to be a disadvantage for girls. In some countries, families have to pay school fees for both primary and secondary education. This can be a strain on low income families. The cost of education includes paying for uniforms and school materials, and transport where it is available. In such cases, an investment in education of boys seems the better choice. The view is that girls will depend on men eventually to provide for them. In that regard, families can see how educating a boy will help a girl. It is more difficult for them to see how investing in a girl’s education will help her family. Abolishing school fees has contributed to increased numbers of both boys and girls attending school. Unfortunately, countries with large populations and low national income cannot easily afford to abolish such fees. In the end, the girls are the ones who lose out.
At other times, there are strong political forces rejecting the idea of an education for girls. If one could recall how the Pakistani schoolgirl Malala was shot in her head because she was advocating for the education of girls. At that time, the Taliban in that area of Pakistan had declared that all girl-schools in the area must be closed. It was unacceptable to the Taliban that girls should be educated. In the face of such dangerous opposition, the girl child definitely needs high-level international support.
Early marriage for girls also disrupts their education. When girls marry in their teen years, they are clearly no longer exposed to secondary education. The World Bank estimates that one third of girls in developing countries marry before the age of 18. Some of these even marry before the age of 15. In some countries, there are cultural and religious influences contributing to these early marriages. Poverty also plays a role as parents may reach a point where they can no longer afford to send a girl to school or even to provide for her. Marriage to someone who can take over that responsibility is seen as a sensible alternative. In South Asia, early marriages are very prevalent and illiteracy among women is very high as many girls do not receive basic education or have their education cut short when they marry as teenagers. Both cultural traditional factors and poverty contribute to the cycle of illiteracy among girls and women. Much sensitivity has to be exercised in trying to change traditional and cultural norms such as child marriages.
But early marriages affect more than just education; they also affect the health of the girls, as they become mothers before they are physically mature. The health effect of early pregnancies on young girls is often tragic. According to a World Bank report on empowering girls, “Pregnancy-related causes account for most deaths among girls 15-19 in the developing world – nearly 70,000 die each year.” The tragedy is intensified by the fact that most of these girls have no power to refuse to get married at that early age. Unfortunately, it is often the very education that the girls lack that would help to improve the statistics.
Girls in many developing countries face serious challenges to their personal development. They often seemed trapped between their gender and their poverty. The obstacles are greater for those living in remote rural areas and for those born into poor families. Not all developing countries have the same issues, but an understanding of the disadvantages encountered by girls in certain areas of the world can give us an appreciation of the motivation behind a declaration by the United Nations for the observance of a day to reflect on the realities of being a girl child.
