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This paper is an effort to capture the emerging picture with respect to girls’ education in South India. Educating a girl is one of the best investments her family, community, and country can make. We know that a good quality education can be life-changing for girls, boys, young women, and men, helping them develop to their full potential and putting them on a path for success in their life. The main purpose of this research paper is to understand the factors that affect the girl child education and to delineate the current status of girls’ education in South India. Improvement in the education and literacy skills of the girls are primarily based upon factors such as, socio-economic, socio-cultural, educational levels of the parents and distance from school. These factors affect the participation of girls in schools and in enhancing their educational skills and abilities. There are number of social, economic, familial, cultural and educational issues that prove to be impediments within the course of acquisition of education by the girls and compel them to drop out. The paper is an attempt to discuss the opportunities and challenges of girl’s education in the country especially in South india.

This paper aims to elicit the stakeholders (parents, teachers, head teachers, District level education functionaries and village education committee member’s) perceptions regarding the current situation of girls’ education, its factors and challenges in south India.

This review of previous literature encompasses studies done on education in relation with women empowerment. Extensive literature was collected from national and international journals, research books, reports and project works. According to UNICEF, 2007 girls education acts as a catalyst for social development, gender equality and economic growth in developing countries. The UN Girls education initiative (UNGEI) was launched in 2000 at the World education forum in Dakar, in response to the disturbing fact- among millions of children worldwide who were not in school, more than half were girls despite marked progress.

Sekhar (2014) conducted a research study in Madurai district to find out the impact of education on women there and came out with the findings that educational qualifications played a significant role in women behaviour and their empowerment.

According to Kumar and Sefali Roy (2012) women’s position in the society cannot be improved unless they are imparted formal and informal education along with skill and vocational training. Women empowerment does not require only dynamic laws but also change in the mental setup of people living in the society. Provision of basic infrastructural facilities in the school is not sufficient. Parents of girls need to be made aware of the fact that girl’s education is more profitable in the long run than sending her to domestic work for earning little money.

NandiniManjraker (2003) is of the view that education is peripheral to the concerns of the contemporary women’s movement in India especially the legacy of struggle by women to establish their right to education. Part of challenge is thinking through concerns about gender and education lies in uncovering the dialectical linkages between the formal education system and larger social & economic processes and their impact on women’s lives.

 Mishra (2009) through his research work, strongly approves that, female literacy plays a very important role in raising productivity levels, reducing child mortality rates and population growth. Girls are underrepresented at every level of formal education. Keeping the girls in primary schools depends upon socio-economic factors and attitude of teachers.

Dighe (2006) is of the view that increased female education is linked to improved health, lower fertility and other benefits that have high social returns. According to her research study in slums of south Delhi, almost all her respondents were school dropouts except few for various socio-economic reasons that spoiled the chances for girls to continue their studies.

Pattnaik and NagarajuGundemeda (2016) through their empirical study on two villages of rural Odisha inferred two set of factors influencing girls dropouts from schools –one is infrastructural shortcomings like non availability of high schools within the village or nearby villages, and other institutional problems like helping in domestic chores , taking care of younger siblings, earning for parents as child labouretc All these affect girls education and in spite of several government programmes, obstacles to girls schooling could not be eradicated. There is a need to move in a holistic manner to overcome institutional and infrastructural barriers.

Abhijeet Mishra and KanikaBera (2016) opined, despite constitutional provisions of free education, dropout trend in Government schools still persist on a largest scale among girls students. They cited several socio- economic and institutional reasons behind this situation.

Afridi (2010) is of the view that increasing father’s and mother’s education increases the educational attainment of daughters, more than that of son’s, but rising mother’s education is associated with significantly greater reduction of difference in attainment between sons and daughters.

 According to Sunita Bose 2012, a multilevel analysis of data on 18,519 families with opposite sex children from NFHS-3 are used to test the impact of maternal son preference and context of gender differential in education in India. Mother’s education is shown to have reduced effects of son preference and to reduce the bias against daughters. Additionally there is more gender inequality in education in communities with high levels of maternal son preference and low women’s status.

Women are trying to compete with men in all spheres of life. There are many people who oppose girls’ education. They say that the proper sphere of girls is the home. So, they argue that the money spent on girl’s education is wasted. This view is wrong, because girl’s education can bring about a silent resolution in the society. Girls’ education plays a vital role through up gradation of depriving Marginalized sections, especially girls in society. Because girls are the back bone of society, they are the mother of the race and guardian of future generation, so that education is very much necessary. Girls must be educated, for it is the Girls who mould the next generation and hence the destiny of the country. But present scenario is different girls are consist with 58.65% of the total population but the literacy rate of the girls is 65.5% whereas the boys literacy rate is 82.1% (Census Report, 2011) and annual average dropout rate of girls in primary level is 4.14% and in upper primary level is 4.49% (DISE Data, 2014-15). Annual average dropout rate of girls in secondary level is 17.79% and in higher secondary level is 1.61% (U-DISE Data, 2014-15). Although Government has taken many initiatives to promote girls’ education in our country, “BetiBachaoBetiPadhao Scheme was launched in 2015 with the noble purpose to educate girls. ‘SukanyaSamriddhiYojana’ scheme was launched in 2015 to meet the expense of the Girl child’s higher education and marriage” (Ministry of Women and Child Development Report, 2015). Government of India is also taking responsibility to make girls’ toilet in every schools for the purpose of minimizing dropout rate in the schools. Because according to the Annual Status of Education Report (2014) “at middle and high schools, there is a correlation between the lack of toilets and drop-out rates.” The purposes of the study are to assertion recent status and challenges of girl’s education in India; to provide possible suggestions to overcome the challenges of girls’ education in India.

Policy Perspectives for Girls education

The policy framework, provision of educational opportunities for women and girls has been an important part of the national endeavor in the field of education since Independence. Though these endeavors did yield significant results, gender disparities persist, more so in rural areas and among disadvantaged communities. The National Policy on Education (NPE, 1986) as revised in 1992 was landmark in the field of policy on women’s education in that it recognized the need to redress traditional gender imbalances in educational access and achievement. The NPE also recognized that enhancing infrastructure alone will not redress the problem. It recognized that “the empowerment of women is possibly the most critical pre condition for the participation of girls and women in the educational process”. The programme of Action (POA, 1992), in the section “Education for Women’s Equality” (ChapterXII, pages. 105-107), focuses on empowerment of women as the critical precondition for their participation in the education process. The POA states that education can be an effective tool for women’s empowerment, ensuring equal participation in developmental processes; The RashtriyaMadhyamikShikshaAbhiyan stresses on improving access to secondary schooling to all young person according to norms through proximate location (say, Secondary Schools within 5 kms, and Higher Secondary Schools within 7-10 kms) / efficient and safe transport arrangements/residential facilities, depending on local circumstances including open schooling and ensures that no child is deprived of secondary education of satisfactory quality due to gender, socio-economic, disability and other barriers.

Research Methodology

The study is mainly based on primary data. The main sources of data were the stakeholder’s perceptions (parents, teachers, head teachers, District level education functionaries and village education committee member’s) and others, which were elicited by conducted focusedgroup discussions. The total number of samples taken was 200. Random sampling method was used. Questionnaire was provided to get information on factors affecting girls’ education and the challenges they face.

Analysis and interpretation

Table 1: Demographic profile

Variables		Frequency	Percent
Gender	Male	107	53.5
	Female	93	46.5
	Total	200	100.0
Age	Below 25 Years	43	21.5
	25-35 Years	59	29.5
	35-45 Years	52	26.0
	Above 45 Years	46	23.0
	Total	200	100.0
Educational Level	Illiterate	63	31.5
	Middle school	45	22.5
	University	35	17.5
	Postgraduate	27	13.5
	Professional	30	15.0
	Total	200	100.0
Location	Urban	50	25.0
	Rural	62	31.0
	Tribal	88	44.0
	Total	200	100.0
Income	Below 10000	40	20.0
	10000-20000	29	14.5
	20000-30000	43	21.5
	Above 30000	50	25.0
	Total	162	81.0
Job	Housewife/Unemployed	38	19.0
	Self-employed	39	19.5
	Retired	35	17.5
	Government worker	41	20.5
	Private worker	47	23.5
	Total	200	100.0
Support Girls Education	Yes	127	63.5
	No	73	36.5
	Total	200	100.0

(Source: Primary data)

From the descriptive statistics table, frequency calculation was analysed for the demographic profile among the respondents, it shows that majority of the respondents are 107(53.5%) are male category followed that 93(46.5%) are belonging into female category. Among that 59(29.5%) of respondents belonged to 25-35 Years of age and 43(21.5%) of respondents are below 25 years. The educational qualification of 63(31.5%) respondents were low and 30(15.0%) of respondents fall under professional category. 88(44.0%) of respondents are from tribal community while the remaining belong to rural and urban area. 50(25.0%) of respondents are earning more than 30000 and 29(14.5%) are earning between 20000 to 30000. Job of the respondents showed that 47(23.5%) of the respondents working were working as private employee and 35(17.5%) of respondents were retired.Whenanalysed about the respondents supporting for girls, it showed that 127(63.5%) of respondents support girls education remaining 73(36.5%) of respondents against to girls education.

Table 2: Chi-Square Test

Location * Support Girls Education Crosstabulation
		Support Girls Education		Total
		Yes	No
Location	Urban	40	10	50
	Rural	50	12	62
	Tribal	37	51	88
Total		127	73	200
Pearson Chi-Square = 31.212;  P Value = 0.000

(Source: Ouputs from SPSS)

From the chi-square analysis,the chi-square value is 31.212 and the significant value is 0.000 which is less than 0.05 at 5% level of significant. Therefore, there is significant relationship between Location and Support Girls Education.From the result, it can be seen that most of the respondents are not supporting for girls education, those respondents are from tribal area. It was also clearly constructed that Urban and rural area peoples are having some knowledge about importance of girls education.

Table.3. Chi-square analysis

Location * Educational Level Crosstabulation
		Educational Level					Total
		Illiterate	Middle school	University	Postgraduate	Professional
Location	Urban	9	14	11	8	8	50
	Rural	8	17	12	11	14	62
	Tribal	46	14	12	8	8	88
Total		63	45	35	27	30	200
Pearson Chi-Square = 33.026;  P Value = 0.000

(Source: Outputs from SPSS)

From the chi-square analysis,the chi-square value is was found to be 33.026 and the significant value is 0.000 which is less than 0.05 at 5% level of significant. Therefore, there is significant relationship between Location and Educational Level of the respondents. Here, it shows clearly that among 46 respondents are illiterate those respondents are from tribal background. They were not aware about the importance of girl’s education so they are not support for girl’s education.

Table.4. Correlation Analysis

Correlations
Variables		Perception of girls Education	Factors affecting Girls’ Education	Challenges faced by Girls’ in Education
Perception of girls Education	Pearson Correlation	1	.881**	.701**
	Sig. (2-tailed)		.000	.000
	N		200	200
Factors affecting Girls’ Education	Pearson Correlation		1	.738**
	Sig. (2-tailed)			.000
	N			200
Challenges faced by Girls’ in Education	Pearson Correlation			1
	Sig. (2-tailed)
	N
**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

(Source: Outputs from SPSS)

Correlation analysis was constructed to find the relationship between perception of girls Education, Factors affecting girls Education and Challenges faced by girls in Education. The Pearson correlation r value shows .881, .701 and .738 and the significant value is 0.000 which is less than 0.05 at 5% level of significant, it shows that there is very high positive linear relationship between those variables.

Table.5. Regression Analysis

Coefficientsa
Model		Unstandardized Coefficients		Standardized Coefficients	t	Sig.
		B	Std. Error	Beta
1	(Constant)	2.529	.145		17.421	.000
	Perception of girls Education	.590	.234	.204	2.627	.009
	Factors affecting Girls’ Education	.460	.339	.355	4.135	.000
	Challenges faced by Girls’ in Education	.713	.541	.628	4.310	.007
a. Dependent Variable: Support Girls Education
R Value = 0.515; F=23.633; Sig.value = 0.000

(Source: Outputs from SPSS)

The regression analysis was calculated to find the how much the predictors variables is carried from the dependent variables. The R value is 0.515 it shows high level prediction among the variable. From the ANOVA Calculation the F value is 23.633 and the significant value is 0.000 which is less than 0.05 at 5% level of significant. The coefficient table shows the significant value is 0.000 for Perception of girls Education, Factors affecting Girls’ Education and Challenges faced by Girls’ in Education with respect to support girls’ education. Education is essential thing for women for their future. Some having more awarded about the importance of girls education some not known the importance. From this analysis, it can be concluded that both the male and female respondents supporting girls education only some people against for girls education those peoples are from tribal and illiterate respondents.

The main problems facing their education are:

1. Development of immorality;

2. Suitable Curriculum for the education of girls;

3. Lack of social consciousness among women;

4. scarcity of lady teachers

5. lack of proper physical facilities

6. Unwillingness of lady teachers to serve in rural areas;

7. Financial difficulties

8. problem of transport

9. problem of wastage and stagnation

10. problem of co-education

11. lack of enthusiasm and interest of the officials in charge of education

The lack of coordination that existed between the home, the school and the life outside had to be remedied; and a close integration must be secured between the process of education and the social and economic life of the country. Everyone should be trained to make an adequate living and lo fill effectively her appropriate place in life. The facilities for education should be adjusted as accurately as possible to the actual needs and opportunities which arise. Any wastage of training should not be tolerated in a country as poor as India. The methods of education had to be so designed that the inherent appeal and the value of education would win for it the loyalty of the pupils and support of the parents.

The awakening among Indian women has been really considerable during recent years. Despite all obstacles and many difficulties women education is advancing steadily. They are making their influence felt in international affairs. Inside the country there is a demand for equal rights. Indeed, it is quite obvious that women’s education must catch up with men’s education as rapidly as possible and that great gap between the two must be bridged.

Education is a key indicator of socioeconomic development. It also increases the knowledge and vision of a person. Equally, it is considered as an essential element in bringing change in social, political, economic fields in a society. Emancipation and upliftment of people can be achieved only through education. Indeed the country’s progress and development largely depend upon the educational attainment of its people. Despite considerable progress, sharp disparities continue to exist between male and female literacy levels in South India. There is an urgent need to bridge the gender gap in education in the State because no society and civilization can move forward without the education of its half population as well said by Swami Vivekanand, "There is no chance of the welfare of the world unless the condition of women is improved". From the above analysis, it can be concluded that the position of girl child education in South India is far better when compared to education status of North India. Their rate of education is very low. Girls of South India are educationally forward when compared to girls at national level. However, it is to be reiterated at the end that girls need a lot of compassionate treatment and favor to enable them to lead a respectable and meaningful life, and in ensuring this, the role of family members and society is undoubtedly crucial and of prime significance and the change attitude of elders towards girls is urgently called for.