There can be hope for the girl child in terms of a bright future if we can tackle one of the greatest challenges of human existence i.e. the challenge of gender discrimination and bias. Only gender equality with total women empowerment can ensure a safe and secure future for the girl. When women are healthy, educated and free to take the opportunities of life, they prosper. When women prosper in life the family in turn flourishes and flourishing families with assertive women in charge ensure bright future for the baby girl.
Children who are the future wealth of a nation can flourish and thrive only when women in the family and the society are healthy, educated and independent in terms of making informed choices about their life. But the situation is far from ideal. Women are facing extreme hardships and marginalization because of gender based discrimination and bias. They are subjected to innumerable forms of violence and hardships. Majority of Women in large parts of the world are weak and are subjected to a life which is totally dependent on others. She faces domestic violence, falls in the trap of commercial sexual exploitation and faces the brunt of harmful traditional practices such as early marriage, premature pregnancy, female genital mutilation etc. The negative consequences of all this is faced by the baby girl. The practice of girl child feticide, infanticide, low enrollment into education, abuse and a life of misery and deprivation is what that is in offering for the girl child when women are weak and they are not able to take care of their children.
So any optimism for the girl child development and progress depends upon the total empowerment of women. Gender based equality can ensure the resurgence of strong and assertive women and in such circumstances we can see the real flourishing of the baby girl. Totally empowered women will share a relationship of equality with their partner. This in turn will lead to a positive reinforcement where the girl child will be adequately taken care in a secure and protective home environment. We can see that empowerment of women and the girl child is a mutually inclusive phenomenon where the development of women can lead to the development of the girl child and this in turn leads to further empowerment and development of women. In fact such positive cycles once generated will carry on in a continuous manner.
Child labour is one of the main reasons why children don't go to school and waste their precious childhood. A girl child most often falls prey to child labour in her own home in the sense that she is put into a condition where she has look after all the household chores from a very young age. This curtails any chance of education. In many cases the baby girl is also forced to contribute to the primary means of earning for the family. Therefore either she ends up working as a child labour outside her home or participates in running the household and becomes a hidden child labour. Elimination of child labour often requires innovative income-generating ideas for parents who rely on their children for income. Economic development, training and loans for parents help give children the freedom to enjoy their childhoods and complete their education without exploitation. Elimination of child labour in either of the above mentioned forms is only possible if we can make the family unit viable economically and educate them further to keep their girl child in school.
Hope for the girl child: The Role of government and other structures of society in elimination of child labour
To make the family unit viable economically and give a future to the baby girl, social organizations, government bodies and other structures of the society should work at the ground level and provide facilities or avenues for gainful employment for the parents. This can also include credit and micro level finance facilities to start up small scale enterprises at the local level. These types of facilities to the parents can reduce child labour and ensure the completion of primary and secondary education of the girl child. Empowering parents, especially mothers, with income-generating skills and by providing them with loans for small businesses and market access for their products should be taken up in a massive scale so that we can prevent the young women labour. Education of the parents, the family and the society is also necessary where it has be clearly communicated that the baby girl should go to school and how her education is important for the family and society. Further parental education should also include communication against the repressive customs, traditions and mindset of the society which leads to the discrimination against the baby girl. There should be also some incentives planned to keep the girl child in the school.
A difficult and less supportive home environment is the prime reason why young women don't go to school. High illiteracy rates among women and lower school attendance rates among young girls, especially at the secondary level, constitute discrimination against the girl child. Unreasonable workloads in the home, preferences for sons, a disregard for the rights of girls, early marriage, child labour, poverty, and the threat of violence keep too many young women from completing their education and trap them and their families in cycles of poverty. The other major hindrance against a good home environment for the girl child is the regressive gender beliefs, customs and traditions. In fact most boys, men and women know that young women are overloaded with work but little is done to help girls in any possible way or take a share in their workload. This is due to beliefs about gender and the role of a girl, and to the economic situation of the family, society and the nation as well. Here the need is to engage men and boys to create gender parity: encourage them to contribute to the work of household chores and to challenge violence and gender roles and traditions that are unjust and harmful.
Young women empowerment and hope for the baby girl in terms of a better future is only possible if we strengthen the family unit and provide a secure, protective and caring home environment for the girl child. The family needs to be made economically viable. Once this happens then we can free the young women from the child labour that she is put into. Further through parental education and training we can eradicate regressive and repressive customs, traditions and mindset which make the society biased against the girl child. These parental education and training programmers should go into specifics and discus every aspect about the girl child development and empowerment including the nutritional and healthcare requirements, education, recreation and free time for the girl, sexual and reproductive rights and protection against sexual abuse. To keep the girl child in school incentives can be planned and actually the economic support to the family should be tied up with the criteria of girl education. The positive benefits from all these programmers can be seen as a change in the home environment where parents will provide a loving and secure environment for the girl child to grow and blossom. She would be taken care in terms of her nutritional and health requirements and she will be sent to school with a progressive mindset. Further this will foster a secure environment where the parents and elders will be vigilant against sexual or other kind of abuse against the girl including violence. The girl child will thus grow in a home environment which is supportive to her needs in every possible way.
Concrete steps that is required in providing a congenial home environment for young women includes empowering families economically to prevent worsening poverty and the harmful consequences of child labour and exploitation; providing adequate health services and abuse prevention systems to protect children; educating all girls, boys, men and women on rights of children, rights of women and human rights, as well as their roles and responsibilities in upholding these rights through preventing violence and discrimination and building gender equity in the home, community and nation.
