DEHRADUN: People are sending their daughters to government schools while their sons to private ones, a study has revealed.
A non-government organization 'ASER' conducted a nationwide survey in which 56 villages of Uttarakhand were also included.
"As opposed to Prime Minister's motto- 'Beti Bachao Beti Padhao', people seem to be interested in providing their male child better education than the female child of the family. This is a mindset which drags us low on the scale of development and benefits for our women," said Mayank Bisht, an associate of the NGO.
The survey was conducted in 985 households, covering about 1252 children in 56 selected villages of Uttarakhand state.
The survey revealed that out of these households over 50% of them preferred government schools for female child and sent their male counterparts to private schools.
The report also revealed that the reasons behind such behavioural pattern is that people believe that private schools have much better facilities than government schools hence better education.
Asha Sharma Gaur, an eminent educationist from Bhimtal, commenting on the issue said, "This is a mindset which shows that female child still holds secondary position in a family. This is sad and scary. We talk a lot about women empowerment and worshipping women and this is what we do in reality."
According to 2011 census, sex ratio in Uttarakhand is 963 for each 1000 male, which is below national average of 940 as per census 2011. In year 2001 census, the sex ratio of female was 962 per 1000 males in Uttarakhand.
Earlier, in July 2019, 132 villages in Uttarkashi district we put under red zone as no female child birth was reported in the villages for over three months
which delivered a total of 216 boys.
According to the 2011 census, there were 1,61,489 women compared to 1,68,597 men in Uttarkashi district.