Even as the State and central governments are implementing several schemes for girl child literacy in the State and are spending huge amount, girls staying in the YSR Colony here are staying away from school.
The government is implementing Beti Bachao, Beti Padao, Kishori Vikasam, Badi Pilustondi and other programmes to promote girl child education.
About 100 Gujarati families are staying in the YSR Colony, on Vijayawada outskirts, selling clothes. The families hail from different places in Gujarat and are settled in Andhra Pradesh.
According to officials, parents have been sending boys to school, but using girls for domestic work and stitching of clothes, after they turn 10. Among boys also, there are many school dropouts.
More than 300 families are staying in the colony constructed by the government for the poor. Nearly 100 Gujarati families, residing at different locations in Vijayawada, were shifted to the colony a few years ago.
One high school, an elementary school and an NCLP School (Special Training Centre) are running in the colony. “However, parents are reluctant to send their adolescent daughters to the high school,” the school staff say.
“Gujarati families are admitting their children in primary sections. Once the girls reach higher classes, they are not sending them to school,” says a school teacher.
National Child Labour Project (NCLP) Krishna district Project Director (PD) D. Anjaneya Reddy says that girls studying third, fourth and fifth classes have been enrolled in the NCLP School being run in the colony.
“Tradition in their families, crime against women and girl students and love affairs are some of the reasons the Gujarati families are citing for not sending their daughters to school,” the PD says.
“We purchase used clothes and wash and restitch them before selling them away. Women in the families help the male members in washing, stitching, ironing and dyeing the clothes. Girls help their mothers in stitching and dyeing the clothes,” explains Bhanu (name changed) of Gujarat.
‘Child marriages’
An NGO representative, preferring anonymity, says as the elders are not encouraging education of the girl child in Gujarati families, child marriages are taking place.
“I and my sister used to go to school. After my sister passed the fifth class last year, my parents stopped sending her to school,” laments a student Soni (name changed).
“The NCLP staff are making door-to-door visits and explaining to the elders on the need to educate children, particularly girls,” says Mr. Anjaneya Reddy.
