Bollywood Celebs unite with Save the Children; Urge to get girls back to school
Girls in poorer countries missed 22 percent more days in school than boys The second wave has pushed back seven decades of work in education
New Delhi: With the number of girls dropping out of school in the upper primary classes (6-10) seeing an increase post COVID, Dia Mirza, Nandana Sen and Sanjana Sanghi, are backing a petition by Save the Children on Change.org to protect girl child education in India. Addressed to India’s Education Minister, Sri Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, they are joined by prominent public figures like Neha Dhupia, Huma Qureshi, Nakuul Mehta, Adil Hussain, Ashish Sharma, Dr. Prannoy Roy, Sagarika Ghose, Nidhi Razdan, RJ Sayema,RJ Rohini, Kalikesh Singh Deo, Juhie Singh, Sourabh Choudhary, Charu Pragya, Tehseen Poonawala, Aashish Yaadav, Santhosh Kolkunda, Nikhil Taneja, ElsaMarie D’Silva, Priya Malik etc.
With the support of over 16000 allies in a month from networks and organisations like Breakthrough, Sayfty, Red Dot Foundation, Right to Education Forum, Centre for Social Research, Yuvaa and Girl Rising India, the campaign #AllyUpForHer #100DaysofAction is urging the government to ensure that girls are not forced to discontinue their education because of the pandemic.
In support of the petition, Dia Mirza, Actor, Brand Ambassador, Save the Children added, “We need to design a clear strategy to ensure that decades of work in child education does not go waste. Schools and AWCs (AnganWadi Centers) should be protected as learning institutions and not permanently used for public health emergencies. India needs to look forward and, just like any disaster, focus on mitigating the aftermath. For the sake of our children, education has to be seen as the next most important challenge.
Together, we can save education and protect a generation”.
Globally, as many as 10 million girls are at risk of never returning to school. The effects of COVID-19 crisis have put the promise of ‘education for all’ into jeopardy, casting a long shadow on their future. While school closures are an effective precautionary measure to contain the spread of COVID-19, evidence from previous emergencies suggest that the longer children are unable to attend learning facilities, the more likely it is they will never return to school. The risk of children dropping out-of-school applies especially for girls and the most marginalized including children of migrant families.
According to data released by UNESCO in October 2020, an estimated 320 million learners were affected by the pandemic in India. They are battling not just gender discrimination and digital divide, but also the risk of early marriage, early pregnancy, poverty, hunger, trafficking and harmful labour.
Save the Children will culminate the #100DaysofAction on 8 September, which is marked as the International Literacy Day by handing over the voices and recommendations to India’s Education Minister.