It is a statement of fact that females around the world witness infringement of rights on a daily basis. Discrimination, violence and harassment of female sex have contributed a tad to the dimension of public discourse globally. The advocacy for "women and men, and girls and boys, to enjoy the same right, resources, opportunities and protections", as defined by UNICEF, is conflagrating by the day. A thrilling sign that gender equality has come to stay.
Gender equality is the state of equal ease of access to resources and opportunities regardless of gender, including economic participation, and decision-making; the state of valuing different behaviours, aspirations needs equally, regardless of gender.
The girl-child is given less priority at home than the male child, usually because of the notion that the latter sustains the family name while the former adopts another man's surname. The cultural belief that the female sex is weaker than the male sex also festers gender inequality. Domestic chores are considered the duty of the female child. She is conditioned to the stereotype of washing and cooking. She is married off at a tender age.
A recent study reveals that Nigeria has the largest number of child brides in Africa with more than 23 million girls and women married as children. Most of them are from poor and rural communities. While data suggests a decline of 9 per cent in the prevalence of child marriage since 2003, and a projected further decrease of 6 per cent by 2030, Nigeria’s rapid population growth means that the number of child brides will in fact increase by more than one million by 2030 and double by 2050. The girl child is also raped. The rate at which rape occurs in the world increases on daily basis, making headlines and hitting trends on social media. In 2012 alone, about 687 cases of rape were recorded in Nigeria.
Daily Sun reported in 2014 how a girl was gang raped by three men on her way back from school. Yet, this was preceded by a The Guardian Newspaper's report about one Masonter Iyanga who raped a going girl. Even the church is not exempted from the rape scandal, which is the motivation behind the #ChurchToo campaign, as a 25th October, 2013 report by Vanguard Newspaper revealed how a 50 years-old pastor allegedly raped three girls, of not more than nine, seven and eight years of age.
More so, the girl child is given less education than her male counterpart. The auxiliary/local health system is predominated by women with little or no professional medical training. This is because of the notion that too much of education denies a woman a matrimonial home. UNESCO estimates that 130 million girls between the age of 6 and 17 are out of school and 15 million girls of primary school age, half of them in sub Saharan Africa—will never enter a classroom. For example, in Nigeria, only 4 percent of poor young women in the North West zone can read, compared with 99 percent of rich young women in the South East.
The marginalization of women in politics is another form of gender inequality. There is low inclusion of women in top public offices. Yet, some states in the country have yet to give full rights to women to own property. Such states include Kaduna, Sokoto and Zamfara—where only married women are permitted under law to own a property. Meanwhile it is important to note that infringement of women rights is ungodly as no religion encourages such. And wherever women and girls are treated unfairly, there is bound to be more conflict and less prosperity.
Link To Article: https://youth-journal.org/travails-of-the-girl-child
