This is the message Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi conveyed to little girls of the A K Fazlul Haque Girls Higher Secondary School at Kidderpore in a function day before yesterday. His message is loaded with the call to the women of tomorrow from the weaker section to learn to negate social pressure to get married in their teens.
I used to think that this problem is prevalent only among Muslim families. But after shifting 2 years back to where we now stay near Jadavpur, I find that the custom is followed even among the poor Hindus.
In nearly all such cases the girls stop going to school after reaching puberty, and as their body undergoes transformation they are led to believe that studying is not what they can pursue any longer. Not that the girls complain.
They are too small in their capacity to think what disaster lack of education can bring onto themselves.
Just out of teens they are married, sometimes even before the ‘official’ age. A year on they bear child, and then the doom begins.
This was also the day that CITU, the dominant left union, called a strike in favor of unorganized labor. But that failed to include domestic help who are an exploited lot.
It’s time that the Governor’s message is heard not only by the little Muslim girls but also by the people from all walks of the society. After all for the entire nation to prosper, all sections of its populace will need to contribute to it.
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