Shankar Gugoloth
(From Ethnographic Fieldwork)
“I measure the progress of a community by the degree of progress which women have achieved.” – Dr. B. R. Ambedkar
We are all facing the pandemic crisis and living in an uncertain period; even now, we hear of many stories of domestic violence at home, abuse of girls, rape of women in rural and urban India, etc. Even though we speak against gender inequality and for women’s empowerment, we still have a patriarchal mindset. Patriarchy, gender binary, and other social inequalities have become a widespread state of mind or a form of social evil.
We live in a society where girls are considered burdens, and having a girl is frowned upon in Indian culture. Still, this story ‘I Am A Girl’ would change our perspective on girl children and their importance for society as a whole. Government policies like Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao, and the Kalyan Laxmi Scheme (Telangana) encourage girl child education and their empowerment through education. This story gives the optimistic view that India is also progressing in the right direction.
This is a short story about a tribal girl named Sangeetha (name changed); this story is narrated by her in the first person. This is the story of a tribal girl child, and how she fought with her patriarchal family against child marriage, and how she availed herself of the benefits of government employment schemes.
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I, Sangeetha, am from a small tribal hamlet in Telangana State: this Thanda (tribal hamlet) lacks basic amenities such as a government school, water supply, and road connectivity. Even my parents were opposed to girls’ education. Nonetheless, I had a strong desire to learn and was able to complete my tenth class in Telugu medium at a nearby village government school. Girls’ education was discouraged in Thanda at the time. After the tenth standard, the girl would marry and leave her parents’ home, so education was unimportant to them; they saw education as non-essential. In those days, the highest level of education available to a girl child in a Thanda was the tenth class.
After my tenth, my parents, like other parents, asked me to marry so that they could focus on my sister’s marriage. Being under this false consciousness, I also said yes to marriage even though I wanted to study. Circumstances, socioeconomic conditions did not enable me to study. So, one day, I finally met my fiancé, who, like me, is a victim of poverty, lack of social capital, and a patriarchal society. My fiancé and I learned about child marriage, girl child rights, and other issues after a lengthy discussion about our marriage and future life. We both decided not to marry and to continue our education. Still, it was difficult to persuade my parents at the time. Still, with my fiancé’s encouragement, I was able to fight back against my parents. I tried to explain to them about child marriage, which could be a human rights violation. In those times, one government scheme immensely helped me to convince my parents — Kalyan Laxmi Scheme; it is a welfare scheme for providing financial assistance for legal marriages, according to the government of India. So, using this scheme, I attempted to explain the legal age for child marriage to them. Finally, they agreed not to marry me because if they married me after the age of 18, they would be eligible for financial assistance from the Telangana government; this is how the scheme aided my life and education.
After a lot of struggle, I enrolled in the government junior college in the nearby town. Every marginalized student faces one more problem: the medium of education. I was terrified of English, so I chose Telugu medium again. I completed my 12th standard without fail. After the 12th, the question of why education for girls came up again in the context of marriage. It was now time to get married. But I still wanted to continue my education, but my family would not allow me to, so I dropped out of school. I stayed at home for a year, but my fiancé has always supported me in obtaining an education. This time, he fought for me with my parents to provide me with an educational opportunity. He told them that he will marry me after my education, thus allowing me to continue my education. So, once again, I enrolled in the undergraduate B.SC. Course, and with the help of my fiancé, I completed my education.
I am at the crossroads of marriage and employment. Even though I did not attend any top college or university in India, as a woman, I became more aware of my rights as a result of government education. So I decided to look for work and began the process. After a few months, I realised that I needed to learn English as well as a few other skills to succeed in job interviews. I needed to get coaching to learn these skills. I couldn’t afford the coaching centre, so I began looking for a government coaching centre. I discovered an exciting opportunity known as the Grameen Kaushalya Yojana, or DDU-GKY. It is a youth employment programme. Following my training at the DDU-GKY centre, I received a job offer from a private firm in a city. So I relocated to a city for work. This is my first visit to a city, and it was difficult for me to connect with the city and its culture, but I wanted to be independent and do what I wanted. For me, the meaning of employment is more than just empowerment. It is also a tool for combating social ills such as child marriage and patriarchy. It is a tool for learning about yourself, your rights, and your options. For me, employment and education for the girl child benefit not only her but her entire family, village, state, and country. We should all view education and employment as values rather than commodities.
My story and struggle are not over; my next step is to give back to society to the best of my ability; I chose education as my path to contribute, so my goal is to become a teacher to help shape minds and build an inclusive and gender-equal society. This is my story of triumph.
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Through Sangeetha’s story, we can see that, as Ambedkar stated, education is the only tool that can bring about social change without resorting to violence. So we can say that the pen and the book are two tools for women to empower themselves and build a better nation where there is no gender inequality.
“If one man can destroy everything, why can’t one girl change it?” – Malala Yousafzai
Kalyan Laxmi Scheme: Kalyani Lakshmi Scheme is a welfare scheme for providing financial assistance for marriages by the Government of Telangana, a novel scheme for all poor people in the state. The scheme provides an assistance of ₹1,00,116 and is aimed at preventing child marriages and supporting marriage expenses for financially distressed families. By March 2018, the beneficiaries stood at 3,90,000.
Grameen Kaushalya Yojana or DDU-GKY: Grameen Kaushalya Yojana or DDU-GKY is a Government of India youth employment scheme. The vision of DDU-GKY is to “Transform rural poor youth into an economically independent and globally relevant workforce.”
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Shankar Gugoloth is a Research Scholar at the esteemed Indian Institute of Technology in Hyderabad. Having earned his Bachelor’s degree from NIT Trichy and his Master’s degree from the prestigious University of Hyderabad. His doctoral dissertation is centered around the exploration of youth aspirations and education.
Image: artwork by Kuffir.
