Powerful and fearless girls of Uttar Pradesh

The girls in Uttar Pradesh are coming out of the closet and claiming their life in the patriarchal society. They are fearless and bold, and speak their mind

Tell us about yourself,” asked a group of adolescent girls sitting in a room in a remote village in Uttar Pradesh’s Ayodhya (erstwhile Faizabad) district. “What do you want to know?” I usually expect a question about my age or marital status. To my pleasant surprise, and for the first time in my field experience of over 10 years, I was asked about the challenges I had to face when I was their age. It took me a couple of seconds to process the question.

These girls — all in the age group between 11-20, mostly from low economic backgrounds belonging to Other Backward Classes (OBC) and Scheduled Castes (SC), are well aware of their rights. All of them are enrolled in schools and colleges. Some are taking coaching for different sports. Some are trained drivers. They fight for their right with village heads and call out discriminatory behavior against girls. They understand violence and how girls and women are subjected to different forms of violence. They are aware of their sexual and reproductive health and sing songs on “Mahvari” (menstrual cycle) together. Along with this knowledgeby their side, these young girls have fire written all over their faces. They are fearless, powerful but how? In a country like ours where adolescent girls face numerous levels of bias based on their age and gender, and owing to intersecting identities – such as caste, class, ethnicity, religion, sexuality, their vulnerabilities are further amplified, what makes these girls stand out?

Adolescent girls, everywhere in India and more so in rural areas, continue to face discrimination and violence at home and are no less vulnerable outside. Their health, education, aspirations and life have no value in a society that still prefers a male child (The latest figures as per National Family Health Survey revealed that nearly 80% of those surveyed said they wanted at least one son). They are not ‘allowed’ to study and are made to choose household chores over attending school. According to a 2018report by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, 39.4% girls aged 15-18 years drop out of education institutes across India. 64.8% of these do so because they are “forced to take on household chores or are engaged in begging”.

Four years later, NFHS-5 reports that “early marriages and chores at home” are the maincause behind girls dropping out of schools. 21,800 girls who had dropped out of school before the 2019-20 school year, just over 13% girls did as they were required for housework and almost 7% did so as they were married off. The urban and rural break-up shows that of the total girls, 17,786 were from rural areas and 4,065 from urban areas.

“My family always supported my brother’s education. Whatever little resources we had, were reserved for him. I had to constantly fight with them to let me complete my next level of education and somehow managed to complete Class 12. They just did not see any point in my or my sister’s education,” said Priya* (name changed), a resident of Katauna, Block Tarun. What made Priya reject the idea that was being fed to her since her birth – the idea that girls only job is to learn household chores, marry, procreate, and take care of their families? What instilled in her the courage to question her parents and fight for her education?

Today, she is teaching in a private school and takes extra classes, earning to pursue her education and follow not just her dreams but support her family as well (apparently her brother is unable to find a job!). All the girls in this group also ensure that no girl in and around their village is forced by their families to drop out of school. They come together to intervene and make their parents understand the importance of education.

“There are several reasons why parents want their daughters to drop out from the schools. Cases of early child marriage are the most difficult ones that come our way. We come together to plan a strategy to intervene. It usually involves us speaking to the girl as at times even girls do not want to go against their parents, if that doesn’t work, we speak to their mothers first and when that fails, we make our parents speak to their parents. If nothing goes as per the plan, we dial the child helpline number and file complaint,” shared Sapna* whom I had met in Dhamhar village in the same block.

These girls have learnt to take a stand not only for their basic rights but for their passion as well. They are entering territories which have been kept sacredfor boys for decades. Sports, for example, is one field that girls are always discouraged to follow. “‘Ab tum ladko wale khelkhelogi?’ is the question my parents had asked four years ago when I had told them I wanted to play cricket,” said Naina*, a girl from the third group I had met in the same block. “My sister supported me to convince them and with several pre-conditions, I was allowed to play cricket,” she added explaining how girls in different villages convinced, fought persistently with the village heads to provide them playgrounds where they could practice without any interference. “They would often threaten us that they would inform our parents about our unnecessary demands and that we should not be crossing the line. To be honest, we did feelscared, but we knew that itwas only the beginning of our long struggle and if we had backed off then, we wouldn’t have reached here,” shared the girls explaining what struggles they had to face in the last six years of their journey. In India, where only 29% women engage in sport, these adolescent girls fighting to play sports in these villages where there is no proper infrastructure – education, healthcare, road connectivity, transport etc. is a BIG BIG DEAL!

Today, 120 girls from different villages in the block practice the game early morning or late afternoon wearing proper sports jerseys. Many participate in district and state level Cricket, Athletics and Kabaddi competitions working hard to make it to national teams.

“Today, if someone asks us what good we will do by playing cricket, we show them Mithali Raj’s picture,” said one of the girls from the group. “What do people say then?” I asked. “Nothing, many still laugh at us while some support us and tell us to get the world cup for our country one day,” she replied adding that although they have come a long way, there is a long journey ahead. How do they know what they want and already fighting for it?

These girls are breaking stereotypes.To ensure that they are financially independent, these amazing girls are learning professional driving (at 33, I don’t even know to ride a bicycle!). According to the Road Transport Yearbook 2015-2016, only 11% of those behind the wheel are women and even those are made fun of. They are taking up Welder and Diesel Mechanics vocational training courses at Industrial Training Institutes. What’s unconventional here? Between 2014-19, only 17%women were enrolled at ITIsof which only 4.3% of enrollments were in engineering trades vs 54.7% in non- engineering trades.For decades, young girls, have been restricted to traditional fields such as beauty, garment and healthcare, which are considered to be “feminized” sectors. They have been almost completely excluded from high technology or more mechanized sectors. Today, in their own small yet strong ways, these girls are fighting for their rightful spaces in these sectors. Since 2019, from this block, 40 girls have successfully completed the Welder Course while 60 have graduated as Diesel Mechanics. Many of these girls have left the village to work in other states.

“Do they continue working after they get married,” I asked. “Girls who are working in companies in other states usually find someone in their field. All of themare saying yes to marriage only on one condition that they’ll continue working wherever they are,” informed didi – a social worker working with the organization that had been working with these girls for the last six years, with a sense of pride.

The answer to all the whys and hows and whats in this article is the fact that one group of committed social workers believed so strongly in working with these adolescent girls that they have changed their realities today. They supported them, organized them, informed and educated them to fight the prejudices their past generations were subjected to -not only to change the status quo for the present generation but toimprove situation for ourfuture generations. This journey of six long years they have taken with these girls is not only inspiring but stands testimony to the fact that all the statistics where adolescent girls and young women are lagging behind in this male-dominated society requires such dedicated, planned, long-term interventions that follow the feminist principles and rights-based approaches. And this is going to take a lot more organized, collective and sustained efforts from our social development sector. As I started to leave, one of the girls looked at me and said, “Aap aana next time, aapko kam se kam cycle chalana toh sikha denge (We will teach you how to ride a bicycle at least the next time you meet us).”

The writer is a development worker from New Delhi. Share your feedback on connect@charkha.org (Charkha Features)