Andhra to use bicycles to stem school drop-outs, child marriage

When it comes to girl student dropouts, Andhra Pradesh has one of the highest rates in India. Now, the Andhra government believes that the distribution of the bicycles will help arrest these dropouts, even though a combination of socio-economic reasons is primarily responsible for this. 

 

The state government also sees this as a useful measure to discourage the child marriages, which are also rampant in many districts of the state.

 

Even though the rate of drop-outs is on the decline, the state government is still concerned with the dropouts of girls as it is directly linked to child marriages among many communities in the state. 

 

“Once a girl drops out of school, her parents seem to favour a quick marriage immediately. Such mentality results in the prevalence of child marriage in the state. So, retaining girls in the school is a top priority of the state government, to rescue them from the evil of child of marriages,” said a senior official of Andhra school education department.

 

In the education sector, the unified Andhra Pradesh was at the bottom and occupied a rank just above BiMaRU states. In the dropout rate at the secondary level, Andhra Pradesh occupies the second position in India. 

 

According to Vijaya Bharati, who is a pioneer in running schools for child farm labourers in India, the distribution of bicycles to girl students will go a long way in the cutting the dropouts in rural areas. 

 

Vijaya Bharati, with the help of state government, ran a school which produced many postgraduates, engineers and nurses including a PhD from former farm labourers. 

 

Now a consultant for state government SERP (Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty), Vijaya Bharati says the distance to a school is also a contributing factor for girl student drop-out rates in rural Andhra Pradesh. 

 

“A bicycle, apart from cutting the travel time, also brings a kind of equality with boys. Now, many boys come to schools on bicycles as they have to travel three to five km to reach a high school. This distance is a deterrent for the parents of girls. This can be overcome with the move,” Vijaya Bharati told Asianet Newsable. 

 

It is hoped that owning a bicycle would also become a matter of pride for girl students, and it would certainly encourage parents to continue to send their daughters to school.

 

Chief minister Chandrababu Naidu’s  government has named the scheme to distribute the bicycles 'Badikostha' (Let me attend the school). All girl students studying class IX in government, aided, Zilla Parishat, municipal and model schools, are eligible to get a bicycle, without any caste or economic criteria.  

 

The scheme, which hopes to increase enrolment, attendance and retention and academic performance, will be implemented at the cost of ₹75 crore.  The distribution of bicycles will start from this academic year itself.

 

The government has instructed the Commissioner of School Education to float tenders to procure the cycles without minimal delay at competitive prices.