The Hindu : A rath yatra for girls' education

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jun 15, 2003

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Other States - Gujarat

A rath yatra for girls' education

By Manas Dasgupta

GANDHINAGAR JUNE 14. After the "Gujarat Gaurav rath,'' it is the "girls education rath'' for the Chief Minister, Narendra Modi. In a unique programme to encourage education among girl children, Mr. Modi has galvanised the entire administration to move around the State for three days to educate the backward classes on the need for educating their daughters.

Riding in a "rath,'' Mr. Modi has selected for himself one of the most backward tribal taluks, Dediapada in Narmada district, where he is making a whirlwind village-to-village tour since yesterday to ensure that every child, particularly the girls, enter the schools.

The Education Minister, Anandiben Patel, has been assigned another backward tribal district, Kwant in Vadodara district.

Not only each of his 15 Ministers have been assigned one taluk or the other to create a mass upsurge for girls education from yesterday, 23 department secretaries in-charge of a district, 60 other secretary-level officers, Collectors and district development officers of all the 25 districts, 70 senior officers of the Education Department and all the village and taluk-level panchayat and Revenue Department officials have been asked to join the "girls education yatra'' and move round the villages in their assigned taluks.

To the critics of the programme who alleged that it had brought the functioning of the State Secretariat to a standstill for three days, Mr. Modi said: "More than the file movement, life movement is important. The critics should realise that the lives of the backward classes, particularly their womenfolk have come to a standstill due to lack of education,'' he said.

``Your Chief Minister has come to beg before you, not for money but I want a promise from each of you, you will not keep your daughters away from schools and will not withdraw your sons midway,'' he appealed to the illiterate tribals in each of the villages in Dediapada.

Though the literacy rate has increased considerably since the formation of the State in 1960, it was still far from an ideal situation and ranked ninth in the country.

The literacy rate doubled from 31.47 per cent in 1960 to 69.97 per cent as per the last census, an increase of 38.50 per cent.

The increase in the literacy rate among women was more than men.

While the rate among men during the period increased from 42.49 per cent to 80.50 per cent, among women it rose from 19.74 per cent to the present 58.60 per cent — an increase of 48.86 per cent.

"Gujarat has the potential and the awakening to become number one among all the States in women's education. What we need is only some efforts to attract girls to the schools," Mr. Modi said.

The State Government's "admission celebrations'' during the beginning of the academic years has created a good impact in the last five years.

A spokesman of the Education Department claimed that due to the Government's special admission drive, 8.54 lakh more students were admitted to the schools during the last five years.

The school drop-out rate declined from 28.96 per cent in 1998-99 to 20.93 per cent in 2000-2001 while the "retention rate'' rose from 71.04 per cent to 79.02 per cent during the period.

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