Gender norms, educational status threaten to curb teenage girls'aspirations

Every fifth teenage Indian girl is currently not studying, dropouts increase with an increase in age, nearly every second teenage Indian girl believes boys have better opportunities to pursue education and work, and only one in five believes that boys can do as much household work as themselves.

These are some of the findings of a new survey report, the Teen Age Girls report (or the TAG report), released by Nanhi Kali, a project by the Naandi Foundation, which works with adolescent girls.

Even as the aspirations of teenage girls soar--seven in 10 teenage Indian girls want to finish graduation, three in four have a specific career path in mind, and nearly three in four do not want to marry before the age of 21, as we reported in the first part of this series--their current status in society and at home has not significantly changed and most struggle with a variety of what the survey calls "new age skills", such as travelling alone, using a smartphone, typing out a document on a computer in English and asking for directions. Read Complete Article

Business Standard