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Low literacy, early marriage impede rights, girls’ voices

By Ijeoma Thomas-Odia
09 October 2021   |   4:14 am
Despite the Child Rights Act domesticated in 21 states of the federation, child Labour, early marriages, sexual and gender-based violence, including low literacy rate, especially among girls, are still in practice particularly in low-income families.

PHOTO: AlJazeera

Despite the Child Rights Act domesticated in 21 states of the federation, child Labour, early marriages, sexual and gender-based violence, including low literacy rate, especially among girls, are still in practice particularly in low-income families. The girl child has constantly battled with discriminations, hence the International Day Of The Girl Child, which aims to beam light on the need to address the challenges, promote empowerment and the fulfillment of their human rights.

Observed yearly on October 11, 2012, this year’s theme, My voice, our equal future, reimagines a better world inspired and led by adolescent girls, hence women-led groups focused on empowering the girl child, have stressed on the need to eliminate all forms of discrimination hampering the gender from achieving parity.

For the Executive Director, Safehaven Development Initiative, Margaret Onah-Nnang, women and girls are subject to multiple forms of oppression, exploitation and discrimination due to their gender. Children around the world continue to face various forms of oppression. Girls have lower literacy rates, receive less health care and are more often impoverished than boys. It is the girls who grow to become women without conditions improving.

“Figure from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) last year showed that about 32 million girls of primary school age and 29 million of lower secondary school age are not getting education. Too often, they are treated as second-class citizens; they are exploited, abused and simply disregarded in many countries.”

While listing challenges faced, Onah-Nnang observed that too often, marriage is seen as higher priority than education, hence the early.

“The low value attached to girls’ schooling means few other options are available to them. Boys can be affected, but most victims are girls. It is estimated that every year, 15 million girls get married before they turn 18. After wedding, they leave the education system and because they have fewer educational skills, they and their families are more likely to live in poverty.”

She also noted that one million girls under age 15 give birth each year.

“In many parts of the world, pregnant girls, regardless of their circumstances, will be excluded from school. Many do not return after giving birth due to those rules, stigma, fees, lack of childcare and unavailability of flexible school programmes. About 16 million girls aged 15 to 19 and some one million girls under 15 give birth every year- most in low and middle – income countries, according to World Health Organisation.”

Violence in school is not only a violation of their human rights, it is one of the most common causes for girls to drop out of school. An estimated 246 million girls and boys are harassed and abused on their way to and at school every year – with girls particularly vulnerable in Africa.

“Too many girls are also left behind because funding is targeted to boys’ education. Funding is an important issue when looking at reasons why girls aren’t in school. Education for girls is often the lowest budget priority in many countries. Daughters are perceived to be less valuable once educated, and less likely to abide by the will of the father, brother or husband. Often, male siblings will be given the chance to attend school instead. But educating girls and young women increases a county’s productivity and contributes to economic growth.”

On child and domestic labour, she stressed that millions of girls spend every day working to help feed themselves and their families.

“Girls often stay at home to take care of younger siblings and bear the main burden of housework. While educating a boy is considered a sound investment, it is sometimes considered to be a waste of time on girls. Many girls begin working as early as five years old- mainly in agriculture or in homes as domestic servants.”

She added that poor sanitation is also a huge factor negating the girl child, adding, “too many schools don’t have separate toilets and washrooms for girls. In many parts of the world, it’s not as easy as raising your hand and asking to go to the toilet. Many girls, particularly adolescents who are menstruating, don’t go to school because of a lack of privacy, unavailability of sanitary disposal facilities and water shortages. In parts of sub-Saharan Africa and other regions, girls can miss out on up to five days of school per month or stop going to school entirely because of insufficient access to water and hygiene facilities, no separate toilets for girls and a lack of sanitary supplies. Many girls also worry about sexual advances from boys in mixed toilets.”

For Executive Coordinator, Bimbo Odukoya Foundation, Aderonke Oyelakin, the girl child in some part of the country are hindered by some socio-cultural norms, which includes, negative attitudes of parents towards education, street hawking, early marriage and insecurity.

“Gender prejudice and resulting gender discrimination begin in childhood; from the moment they are born, girls and boys face unequal gender norms regarding expectations and access to resources and opportunities, with lifelong consequences – in their homes, schools and communities. For example, the world’s boys are often encouraged to go to school and get an education to prepare for work, while girls carry heavy household responsibilities that keep them from school, increasing the odds of child marriage and pregnancy.”

Oyelakin said the girl child faces a lot of challenges, but lack of education is more in some parts of the country.

“Poverty is one of the major cause lack of girl child education. We recommend that government create poverty alleviation programme at the grassroots, provided with a safe and supportive and educational environment that is free from abuse, exploitation and violence.

“Early marriage should be abolished in all parts of the country as the child’s right act identify a child to be anyone below the ages of 18; that should be a standard that no child should be given out for marriage. Early marriage should be abolished until the girl-child had attained a certain level of education and government should engage development partners in ensuring community based sensitisation and human capacity development of teachers that will translate into increase enrolment of girl-child.”

Founder, Echoes of Women in Africa Initiative, Louisa Eikhomun-Agbonkhese said, economically, women are the poorest of the poor.

“This is why the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) five is centered on women empowerment and gender equality is aimed at realising by 2030. Politically, women are already left out. Where countries are aimed to realise 50/50 affirmation on gender equality, what do we have in Nigeria? Just six per cent! The challenges are a myriad and more challenging is insecurity. Schools have become the target of kidnappers and sexual predators in recent times and girls are the victims. From the infamous kidnap of Chibok girls in 2014, the government has allowed more kidnapping without bringing perpetrators to book. If schools are not safe for girls, how do we achieve gender parity.”

Founder, Vision Spring Initiative, Ngozi Nwosu-Juba, stressed that women and girls suffer violence sustained by gender norms that embody gender inequality and unequal power relations, adding, “Nigeria is still a patriarchal society with male domination. Some of the forms of violence women and girls face include sexual violence such as rape, female genital mutilation, sexual exploitation and trafficking. Other forms of violence include denial of property and right to inherit their father’s property, early and forced marriage, abductions, harmful widowhood practices and male child preference.”

She noted that violence against the girl child is one of the most prevalent forms of human rights violation in Nigeria.

“Girls in Nigeria are at the risk of trafficking, majorly for domestic service, child prostitution and child pornography. The girl child is the first to be withdrawn from school if parents suffer financial difficulty.

They are also withdrawn for early and on some cases forced marriage.

“The poverty level in Nigeria is a major contributor to keeping girls out of school. Although the Universal Basic Education programme was introduced in 1999 to ensure free access to a nine- year formal basic education for the girl child, public education is not entirely free as the school administration resort to charging illegal fees, textbooks, and lesson fees.”

Nwosu-Juba added that in Northern Nigeria, girl child education is often hampered by sociocultural factors, including gender discrimination, child marriage, and parents’ perception about formal education and fears about sexual harassment.

“Fears of kidnapping and abduction are also legitimate concerns for keeping girls out of school as the spate of school abductions in the last seven years across the regions are alarmingly high. In recent times, parents have to pay huge sums of money to regain the freedom of their children where some of these girls have died in the process; this is a very difficult time to be a girl.”

For Executive Director, Initiative for Women and Girls Right Advancement (IWOGRA), Nkechi Obiagbaoso-Udegbunam, women and girls face various forms of gender discrimination ranging from unfair treatment based on their sex and assigned gender roles. This, she noted, is typically reinforced through the process of internalising stereotypes and gender roles.

“Other forms of discrimination are in form of victimisation, female genital mutilation, restricted legal rights, restrictions on clothing, unequal pay for equal work done by women and their male counterpart, discrimination during employment, denial of inheritance rights and political discrimination.”

Executive Director of Borno based foundation, Learning Through Skills Acquisition Initiative (LETSAI), Mariam Aliyu, informed that most of the problems girls in the state face include denial on the choice of school, especially for Islamic students, as they are only allowed to attend schools where Hijabs are not worn and the style of life must be purely Islamic, sexual harassment by instructors in schools, lack of formal reporting mechanism for girls to report possible harassments when they happen in schools.

“There is also lack of awareness about encouraging girls to come up to report existing harassments in schools, absence of reporting hotlines such as telephone number through which harassments must be reported, ostracism or rejection for rape victims since this is considered as a taboo in an Islamic setting and intimidation by perpetrators who ensure victims do not report.”

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