Gender-based inequality and discrimination in education are a part of deeply rooted socio- cultural values and practices of a patriarchal society. They are pronounced as a reality rather than an accident in rural Nepal (Bista, 2004). Along with right to education, children are discriminated against opportunities, resources, services, benefits and decision making power. Such discrimination has been based on the socio-cultural beliefs and practices where male child enjoys a privileged status from the day of birth. On the other hand, female children are ignored and poorly granted the same educational opportunities.
My research findings mainly suggest that young girls are more disadvantaged in comparison to their male counterparts within the households in all aspects of human life including intra- household resource distribution. However, these patterns do not apply universally in all the contexts across the world in the sense that it will be manipulated by the factors such as age, and birth order within the siblings. In most social settings, an individual’s status within the household is largely determined by three main variables: age, gender and kin relationship (Gittelsohn et al., 1997). The interplay between individual’s age, gender and kinship in the allocation of resources within a household is an important component. Within a family generally, parents may have different preferences with respect to investment in boys and girls with the expectation to receive higher returns later to these investments. In this regards, it is argued that female children are perceived to be an economic burden for the family. Most of the resources and economic inputs with respect to food, health and education are unlikely to be returned as female children grow mature, except in labour extracted before they marry and leave the household. This is what one of the reasons to make female children busy in household activities. The daughters leave her natal house and move to her husband’s house after marriage. Hence, investing in their education is perceived to have no economic and
102 social benefits to the family, especially in rural areas. On the other hand, boys are generally considered as a source of old age security for the parents, and hence, are more likely to be preferred. Furthermore, they are desired and valued for carrying forward the family name from generation to generation. These biased preferences and socio-cultural practices are reflected in the lifelong neglect of women and female children. In terms of their given low status, they are restricted not only access to good nutrition, health, education and employment opportunities but also to prevent them taking part in key household decisions.
From the field work data, I conclude that parental attitudes and cultural practices play significant role to make the decision on the type of school and the quality of education a girl child receives. This finding supports Glick and Sahn (2000) who argue that parental education and attitudes are the important factors that determine child schooling and especially the decision for the girl schooling. The core of my research finding sheds light on the discrimination between boys and girls schooling with the quality of education rather than mere school attendance. In countries where children’s schooling faces many barriers of direct and indirect costs, as well as accessibility of schools, parental decisions about children’s schooling depend not only on available resources but also on their understanding of what education will do for the children. On the basis of the field work data, poverty played least role for the girls to study in public schools. The economic condition of my research participants was relatively not poor due to the land they hold and income sources through remittances from their family members. In this connection, my research findings support Colclough et al. (2000) who argue that the poor performances and under enrolment of girls is caused by cultural practice, rather than of poverty at both national and household levels. However, the researchers as (Ray, 2002; Behrman and Knowles, 1999) have given more emphasis on household poverty and parental income as the determining factors in child schooling. They claim poverty as the main contributing factor to keep the children away from their right to education forcing them to involve in child labour.
The value of girl education is culturally and socially constructed in rural Nepalese society. My research findings help to understand the lives of Nepalese children from socio-cultural perspectives. I analysed children’s daily life activities on how they combined both work (unpaid household) and schooling together. The present work mainly sheds light on the preferential socio-cultural practices to distribute household resources and its impact on child
103 schooling. These practices are rooted in patriarchal values where woman and girls are disadvantaged in terms of their basic rights. In this context, girls are focused on household works followed by schooling. In Nepalese society, children are considered to be an important source of labour for the family. The social value associated with child work is based on the concept of socialization to develop the understanding about family responsibility, home living skills, and accompanying attitudes that may carry over into their adult lives. In doing so, female children, being most responsible for the domestic work to replace their mother in the family, are focused to engage on household duties from their early age as the preparation for their married life. As a result, they are deprived of enjoying their basic rights freely. Their rights are confined within the document only. The new paradigm of sociology of children and childhood views children as independent, competent social actors having their own rights. However, Nepalese children – despite their valuable contribution to family livelihoods – are treated as mere dependent on adults. Generally, the voices of the children are not heard and the children are imposed with the best interest of the parents rather than their own.