29th Session of the Human Rights Council
(June 15-July 3, 2015)
Panel Discussion on “Realizing the equal enjoyment of the right to education by every girl”
June 16, 2015
Intervention by India
Thank you Mr. President,
India welcomes this panel discussion on girls’ education and thanks the distinguished speakers for their insightful comments.
Mr. President,
Education is a catalytic agent forsocial change and is inextricably linked to the status of women and girls and the overall development of a society. Government of India fully realizes the ‘multiplier effect’ of girls’ education and has put girls’ education as a prime agenda for national development.The Right to Education Act 2009 is a landmark legislation that for the first time made eight years of elementary education (age 6-14 years) a fundamental constitutional right for all children in India.
To prioritize the realization of the right to education by every girl child,a two pronged gender strategy has been adopted, on one hand to make the education system gender responsive and inclusive and on the other hand, to generate community demand for girls’ education through training and mobilization. Interventions under this strategy includeopening of schools in the neighborhood to make access easier for girls, provision of separate toilets for girls in each school, setting up of separate girls schools and girls hostels, recruitment of additional women teachers, gender sensitization programmes, review of national curriculum to make it gender sensitive and more importantly community engagement and mobilization campaigns.
Emphasizing a life cycle approach to women and girls empowerment, Hon’ble Prime Minister of India launched the BetiBachao, BetiPadhaoYojana (Save Girl Child, Educate Girl Child) in January 2015. It adopts a multi-sectoral approach, among other things, to ensuring girls safety, providing quality education and equal opportunities to girls.
To ensure equitable education with a focus on girls in vulnerable situations, including girls with disabilities and girls from specific social groups, a Digital Gender Atlas for Advancing Girls Education hasbeen developed that provides a comparative composite index of gender related indicators, trend analysis and performance tracking at the national,regional and block levels and acts as a hands on management tool to identify priority interventions toaddress critical gender gaps.
Mr. President,
Despite significant advances over the past decade, the World has still a long way to go in achieving the ‘Education for All’ goals, in particular those related to girls’ education.We must rethink and come up with flexible approach and solutions to local barriers to girls’ education. International community and the relevant international educational agencies have an important role to playin engagingwith government and communities to provide necessary technical assistance and support to identify and address specific challenges to universalization of girls’ education.
In this regard, we would like to hear from the distinguished panelists how the ‘Education for All’ agenda can be sustained and strengthened in the post 2015 development goals and how girls’ education can be further prioritized.
Thank you Mr. President.
