Do we hate a girl child?
No? Then why, instead education, girls are SOLD into Marriage/ subjected to early pregnancies or treated as second rate citizens in many countries in the world?
Many of us (those in developing countries and the developed ones) will say - well, I love my daughter and I am doing everything I can for her education. That is great but have we taken a step back to see what is going on in the world?
Two thirds of illiterate persons in the world are female!
31 Million girls in the world lack Primary Education & 34 Million girls lack Secondary education as per this Unesco report
There are countries in the world (predominantly African and Asian) where poor girls get on an average less than 1 year of education in their youth! Please see the scorecards below:
Image credit
Can education help?
Yes - says this study by Unesco and also independent organization findings like this one by One Girl
The findings are based on surveys across many countries. Here are some of the benefits and advantages quoted:
- Educated women less likely to die in childbirth: In Sub-Saharan Africa alone, secondary education would help save 50,000 lives
- Better handle on population control: In sub-Saharan Africa, women with no education have 6.7 births, on average. The figure falls to 5.8 for those with primary education and more than halves, to 3.9, for those with secondary education.
- Girls with higher levels of education are less likely to have children at an early age: 10% fewer girls would become pregnant under 17 years in sub-Saharan Africa and South and West Asia if they all had a primary education. Almost 60% fewer girls would become pregnant under 17 years in sub-Saharan Africa and South and West Asia if they all had a secondary education.
- Educated women are more likely to find work: In Brazil, only 37% of women with less than primary education are in work. This rises to 50% if they have a primary education, and 60% with a secondary education
Am I merely preaching here?
My wife and I have been funding the education of girls over the years from our personal savings from time to time. We have always believed in action and mostly, direct action:
- Engineering college education sponsored for 2 girls so far
- School fees, books and uniforms sponsored for 4-5 girls so far. The girl in the photograph will likely be the next one to be supported very soon
- Supporting a society in my Alma mater for helping needy students (not specifically girls though)
- My wife sponsors a prize in her Alma mater every year of a girl child who is best in sports and studies
Our efforts have been limited to our circle and have not been far reaching. We have tried donating to charities and Non-Government organization too in the past but, unfortunately, we have had a fairly bad experience of this. Even reputed organizations in Africa and Asia appear to be riddled with corruption and inefficiencies - rendering them useless for the cause. I am not saying this is the case with all of them but it is certainly an issue we have to face while selecting suitable charities. Even with all due care, we are usually never sure that our money has really reached the needy.
'Steemucation' then?
Social platforms like Steemit have something that normal schooling systems do not have. REACH!!
With the spread of internet and smartphones, Steemit and other social media are reaching remote corners of the world. What if we, the Steemit community created 'Steemucation' that is based on following pillars:
- Create a Steemit based app that helpes children learn and rewarded them Steem in return for completion of learning tasks. This would be a fairly simple project for all the coding experts available on Steemit
- Create safeguards to prevent abuse by scheming elders (use biometrics /ID for ensuring identity). Also - rewards need not be huge - just enough to keep children and their parents motivated enough to learn
- Create a donation based or crowd funded Steemit account to fund this app.
- Appoint a trusted team of Senior and active Steemians to administer the funding account. Transparency of the blockchain will naturally help in tracking all transactions
- Expand the concept to reach maximum demographic cross sections by adding more subjects/ languages etc. as the project grows
I seek ideas, support and guidance on this 'Steemucation' idea and what we, as a community, need to do to take this forward. Please feel free to comment or contact me via Steemit Chat with your thoughts.
Note: First image is created by me by editing (to add text) to my original photo
