Review article

Girls and Girlhoods at Threshold of Youth and Gender-A Vacha Initiative,

Editor: Vibhuti Patel, The Women Press, Delhi, pp/ xxv 480, Price: 1595.
by Ms. Sakshi Goyal, Ms. Rachna Amarnani and Ms. Guruvaishnavi*

In this voluminous contribution, the editor and the contributors have so succinctly brought out
the different aspects of Girlhood. It is so nicely articulated in the foreword of the book that
“Girlhood is seldom considered as an important phase in itself in India”.
Chapter 1 on “The adolescent Girl in India” by Sonal Shukla and Pradnya Swargaonkar reflects
why a girl always stays behind in comparison to a boy further leading to the disadvantaged
position of the women in all institutes of national life. The chapter starts with a historical
background of the adolescent girl in India showing her marked absence. It emphasises on
Phulmani Dasi case that resulted into a national level controversy in the pre-independence period
regarding 'age of consent' and led to the raising of marriageable age of girls.
This chapter is a journey which takes us through the reasons of disadvantaged position of a girl
in the society like female infanticide, child Marriage, ill health, malnutrition, myths about
menstruations, nutritional deficiencies, and low levels of education, perceived notions and
violence against women as a result of which girls face a systematic disadvantage over a long
range of human development indicators including health, nutrition, labour force participation,
and the burden of household tasks.
It brings out an important cause i.e. no consensus on “who is an adolescent girl” that result into
absence of specific policies and invisibility of girls in statistics and indicators. Girls are
bracketed with women, children and youth.
Under myths about menstruation, the authors aver “Women employed in pickles business do not
stop working during menstruation but belief about pollution survives.” It so shows on one side
according to the myth pickles will get spoilt even if her shadow falls on it and on the other side
just because you want cheap labour, you are making her work during menstruations also. Then
don’t the marketed pickles get spoilt?
The chapter brings out the importance of girls’ education and how lack of education deprives
girls and then consequently women of self confidence, self esteem and choices to live
meaningful life. There is a need beyond primary education and simple facilities like clean toilets,
potable drinking water and quality of teaching in order to avoid dropout rates of girls. There is a
need for affirmative action by not only by the state but also by voluntary organisations, NGOs
and the society at large. Special programmes like Masum in Pune district, Bal Kishori of Vacha
in Mumbai, Jagori in Delhi and Sidhbari and Shaishav in Bhavnagar are replicable.
Chapter 2 by Ms. Prabha Tirmare has emphasised the need to introspect factors responsible in
upbringing of girl child to ascertain her identity and status in society. It shows how from early
childhood itself girl children are taught behaviour pattern which leads to gender stereotyping. A
girl child has not only to sit, stand, walk, talk, eat and sleep in a certain way but has also to
express her feelings of joy and happiness, sadness, frustration and anger in a typical way. By
following this typical process of socialization, that conveys that boys are supreme, girls are made
into subordinate beings.
The chapter throws light on the torments a girl child faces in form of sexual abuse, foeticide,
infanticide, selling them for prostitution, devdasi system, dowry deaths, etc. It reasons the
existence of such practices that these are accepted by the masses with questioning their origin
and purpose. It sarcastically captions child marriage as “Little wives little mother.” It brings out

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hard hitting statistics that every 6th death is due to gender discrimination. In a country like India
where girl is considered an embodiment of Goddess Lakshmi, there are practices like selling of
girls to foreign buyers. If this continues the day is not far when India will be a poor country. If
our country cannot respect women, you think any nation will respect us.
The chapter reinstates the fact that the work of girls is usually invisible because it is located in
the domestic sphere. It makes a beautiful compilation of factors in the process of Socialization of
girl child as 10 Fs, Formative Factors: Feudal Societies, Families and Shelter, Foods, Formal
Educations, Fashion, Clothing and ornaments, Fairies and other tales, Folk songs, Festivals, Fun
Games and Films.
It brings out the micro and macro level reforms made to improve the status of the girl child. It
concludes by stating that in the modern world, there is a need to develop youth as equal human
beings without any discrimination and for this the recipe needed is “ without finding the sex,
dress them in pink and blue, give them doll and mecheno, teach them humanity, teach them to
protect themselves from the oddity, boost their confidence.”
Chapter 3 by Ms. Cynthia Stephen talks about the commitment of the government to the girl
child. It starts the chapter with an important outcome from the census showing that the girl
children in India show a tendency to become endangered species. It shows girl child in macro
level policy like Beijing Platform for Action (PFA), CEDAW, United Nations declaration on
Rights of the Child, etc. It covers the constitutional provisions for girl child in Indian Legal
framework.
It shows that though Gender has been mainstreamed at the policy level at the centre and
efforts at gender budgeting is visible even at the state and district level in certain states; but
resistance to bills relating to women in parliament, existing violence against women, etc show
lack of proactive implementation by the state. It supplements the chapter by a compilation of
relevant extracts from official reports in connection with the issues of the girl child.
The chapter emphasises on the moral and constitutional obligation of the government to its future
citizens and especially to the most valuable human resource: the vulnerable and precious girl
child, who will carry the future of the country in their very bodies.
Further in Chapter 4 by Dr. Daksha Dave talks about Declining Sex Ratio in India. It shows the
trends on declining sex ratio across census years and different states. The data is conclusive of
the fact that Sex ratio in India is adverse to women. It very well highlights the socio cultural
factors like: son mania, female foeticides, female infanticide, change in sex ratio at birth and
low levels of female literacy; as the reasons for declining sex ratio in India. It further brings
attention to the consequences and makes recommendations to bring about improvement in the
existing situation.
The drop in child sex ratio is a reflection of the worsening status of women in our country. Time
has arrived to declare a crusade against all these above factors, both on individual and collective
level, to stop elimination of unborn daughters only because of their sex. China as a result of its
policy of only one child per couple to control population today is facing problem as the
proportion of young population is less. If Indian society continues to prefer boy to girl child then
the day is not far where there will not be sufficient girls to marry boys. But the irony of the
situation is that it is the women and girls only who have to face the consequence of it in form of
increased violence against them.
Chapter 5 titled “Education and Health of girl child in Urban India” by Prof. Dr. Vibhuti Patel
reveals that in India, compared to their male counterparts, girls are statistically less in number,
less educated, less healthy and are more vulnerable to neglect, exploitation and abuse. The

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chapter brings out the disappointing fact that the girl child is perceived as a burden to be passed
on to another family. Important contribution of the chapter is that to HIV AIDS and STD among
girls. In our country millions of adolescents live or work on street, and many are forced to sell
sex under extremely barbaric and unhygienic conditions that increase their exposure to STDs.
Chapter 6 by Dr. Dolly Sunny talks about one of the most formidable problem i.e. of Child
labour in India. It defines and gives the interstate disparities of child labour in India. It
categorises the reasons for child labour into demand side and supply side factors. In the sphere of
Girl child, the chapter makes an important contribution under the head of sex discrimination in
child labour. Male child labour is preferred to female child labour, since male children are
considered to be stronger. Girls are engaged in low paid or no wage unskilled jobs which do not
necessarily lead to skill formation that may help in enhancing future productivity.
The chapter throws light on the negative effects of child labour. It has adverse effects on the
career and health of children and hence it endangers the human resource development and
prosperity of the country. It covers the measures of protection from exploitation and beautifully
concludes by lines of Nobel Prize winning poet, Gabrial Mistral of Chile who rightly puts it- “we
are guilty of many faults, but our worst crime is abandoning the children, neglecting the
foundation of life. Many of things we need can wait. The child cannot. Right now is the time his
bones are being formed, his blood being made and his sense being developed. To him, we cannot
answer, ‘Tomorrow’; his name is ‘Today’.
Rekha K. Talmaki in Chapter 7 titled “Trafficking of Tribal Girl Child” defines Trafficking and
brings to the fore an extremely distressing fact that the percentage and intensity of trafficking is
quite high among tribal girls between the age group of 12 to 18. For the convenience and better
understanding of readers it categorises intensity of trafficking in different stages.
Upto Chapter 7, the book covers the profile of an adolescent girl and how her upbringing
determines her identity and status in society. It talks about Government’s contribution towards
girl child. It covers issues like declining sex ratio, education and health of girl child. It throws
light on emerging issues like Child labour and Trafficking of tribal girl child.
Chapter 8, titled as “Existence in Shadows : Women and Disability” by Prerna Sharma focuses
on disability. Each form of disability is to an extreme extent of agony suffered. It is believed that
disability is caused because of past Karma and is considered as a “Punishment” for the sins
committed in the past lives. It runs parallel to social attitudes like pity, avoidance, fear and
discrimination to misconceptions, myths and stigma. Attachment of stereotype to it,
marginalization of people with the disability from mainstream to societal organization is
inevitable. Thus, their voices unheard and they entrusted with secondary and tertiary positions
within their own family. World of silence and isolation is what they have and become one of the
minority sections. Denial of equal opportunities and basic human rights, perceived as inferior,
incapable, inadequate, a drain on family resources and costly for the society to maintain is the
society’s stereotypical and prejudiced opinion. Persons with disabilities possess the same
attributes like each of us. And whichever faculties they miss out, they compensate it with others,
but yes not naturally as it is commonly believed but by sincerely working hard and developing it.
Clichéd as it may sound that women form the ‘marginal component’ of society vis-à-vis disabled
women who are more marginalized. Ironically, not only the able bodied women are part of this
marginalization of disabled women, but also the disabled men. The neglect of these women is to
an extent that no reliable data is available with regard to their number and this is more evident in
the developing countries. Personal thanks to Ms Sharma for having touched this untouched issue.
She highlights how disabled women and girls face more discrimination than disabled men and

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boys within the family in terms of health care, education, training, employment, income
generation opportunities and exclusion from community activities.
Chapter 9, “Conditions of female children in Orissa (With Special Reference to Ganjam
District)” by Dr. Krishna Chandra Pradhan gives a detailed report on the statuses of the women
and girl child. One of the basic features of this report is that Dr. Pradhan has taken into account
the previous studies on the status of women that have been done by various scholars and then
aims at adding a new dimension to the existing literature vis – a – vis exploitation of female
child, involvement of girls in sex trade and health hazards and discriminatory treatment.
The research is mainly confined to the Ganjam district in Orissa. He has selected three blocks
named Aska, Kodala and Khalikote. Each of these blocks comprises of three villages each. The
selection of sample villages has been done by simple random sample technique. The data
collection methods used were the schedules, questionnaires and personal interviews.
The author has been successful in highlighting major issues that girls face i.e. Child labour,
prejudice against female child, child prostitution and exploitation and run-away girl child. The
description about the reasons of the burgeoning trend in child prostitution is clearly explained.
Children are believed to be free of Aids and venereal diseases, hence their demand is high. It is
also astounding to know that the birth of a female child is welcomed by a prostitute because she
is the source of security for her mother and a definite source of income. The author emphasizes
that “Education of female child is simply the means to their empowerment and it is the key to
overcoming oppressive customs that have relegated girl child as second class citizens”. The in
depth study of the sample villages are also very comprehensive and can be used as a reference at
the time of framing of policies. Last but not the least, the mention of the fact that active
participation of all men and women, community based organizations rather the entire nation and
the government together should join hands together to improve the status of women instead of
just expecting the government to do it, is quite practical. Blaming the patriarchal system for
idealizing a woman as a fashion model is not appropriate if we are talking about this era. In this
era, women who are models are by their own choice and women desire to look good for
themselves and not particularly because they want to be ‘decorative ornaments’.
Chapter 10 on “Sibling Abuse: A study of Sibling Interactions in Family Setting” by Dr. N.
Indira Rani and Dr. N. Komali Salomi conveys that the words ‘abuse’ and ‘child abuse’ have
been repeated in our day to day lives umpteen number of times. But the concept of ‘sibling
abuse’ is relatively new and untouched. The authors believe that this segment of abuse has
almost consistently been ignored. Thus, the main aim of the study is to explore the nature and
different forms of abuse between siblings in urban families. Methodology used to conduct the
study is selection of a sample and semi-structured interview schedules.
For the better understanding of the readers, the authors have defined sibling abuse under three
heads. First, emotional abuse which is nothing but teasing, name calling, belittling, ridiculing,
intimidating, annoying, provoking, destruction of property, rejecting, terrorizing, isolating,
corrupting and denying emotional responsiveness. This type of abuse frequently occurs and is
believed to be more mentally destructive than any other form of sibling abuse. Second, is
physical abuse which ranges from hitting, biting, slapping, shoving, and punching to more life
threatening acts such as choking and shooting. Physical abuse is considered to be the most under
reported and least understood of all forms of family violence. Last, is the sexual abuse which
includes unwanted touching, indecent exposure, intercourse, rape or sodomy between siblings.
The findings of the study conducted are a clear proof that sibling abuse persists in almost all
families. It is quite interesting to know that name calling is generally focused on some attribute

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of the victim like height, weight etc. And it was found that despite the fact that parental support
was sought, the problem mostly remained unsolved. Acceptance by the respondents about the
fact that the abuse affects their lives as adults is also intriguing.
However, it is yet so ironical that each one of us here have faced some form or the other of
sibling abuse, but we are still so unconscious of it that we just ignore it and consider it as normal
behaviour amongst children. This genre of abuse is still raw and yet to be explored further.
Last but not the least; the study could have been further enhanced by capturing data on incest
relationships in the family. Considered as a taboo, yet many girls are forced to have incest
relationships with the male members of the family. Since it is a type which can also be also be
associated with sibling abuse, it could have been included in detail.
Chapter 11, “The Indian Girl Child: Trajectories of Social Construction” by Dr. Sunita Parmar,
in an algorithmic form, presents the trajectories of socialization of the Indian girl child. She
draws out a comparison on how the boys and the girls initiate into the adult social world but the
initiation for the boys is enabling and for the girls is constricting. The girl inscribes a certain
“acceptance code” of conduct. Marriage is a vocation for girls. Throughout the lives of the girls,
whether at homes, schools or televisions, the girls are ingrained with the society norms of not
being ambitious, of being subordinates, of being care takers but not protectors. All of this
becomes a part of their psyche.

It is very rightly said by the author that mothers who play an integral role in the socialization of
children are themselves victims of the patriarchal structures of society and end up discriminating
between a boy and a girl. The author conveys the impression, and perhaps rightly so, that out of
social fears, and protectionism for their girl child, mothers end up leading their daughters to
adopt the stereotypical role. Overall the manuscript appears to be an almost comprehensive
assessment of the situation by Dr. Parmar. Perhaps a perspective that could be added here is,
even if they would want their daughters to break the mould; it would be difficult for mothers to
find the necessary courage to support the girl child in breaking the typecast. Comparing the
above general state of affairs with urbanized societies, the author highlights that there has been a
tremendous improvement in socialization of girls as bread earners and protectors in the urban
areas, which is a fact.
Dr. Pratima Dave Shastri, in Chapter 12 “Politics of Gender and the Familial Structure in the
Story, ‘Girls’ by Mrinal Pande” presents her analysis on how patriarchy encompasses the Indian
society. She narrates the various aspects connected to patriarchy and its effects on women. For
this, she has particularly spoken about Mrinal Pande’s ‘Girls’. A very thought provoking line
which the child narrates in the story is “For a long time I sit outside the house watching the bird
flying and wishing that I had been born a bird. Do mother birds too think that girl birds are
inferior? I wonder”. It really shows two basic emotions of the girl child i.e., innocence and pain.
The author explains how women become the spokesperson of men’s views and superimpose
restrictions on their daughters, channelizing their behaviour to take a particular shape and form.
Thus, emphasizing on the irony of the situation. One very positive aspect of this chapter is that
the narrator of the story had the courage to question those people who were suppressing her.
Undergoing a mixture of emotions, the child was unable to comprehend the dual personality of
the community. On one hand, they would treat the daughter as slaves and on the other they
would deify. Deification of women is again extreme exploitation of women in the image of all
giving – deaf and mute idol. The crux of the article is very well highlighted and is extremely
touching.

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Dr. Mira K Desai provides media analysis in Chapter 13 “Girl Child, Television Advertising and
Status Quo: Gender in HDFC Standard Life Advertisements”. In the initial segment of the report
Dr Desai has given a snapshot of television in India, gender and Indian television and girlhood
and Indian TV advertising. She states that Indian women are mainly media users without any
reference to portrayal of women in media. The author explains the various studies done on media
and women which show the trend of increase in the visibility of women in television
programming. However, the stereo type still exists.
The author states, it has been an ongoing practice of the advertisers to define women in relation
to men where as men vis-à-vis majorly their work. Emphasis has been laid on son’s education
and daughter wedding. I firmly agree with the author about representation of women as sex slave
in most advertisement of hospitality industry and photographic good industry.

The author in this paper analyzes four television advertisements all showing communication
between a daughter and the father. Findings of the research convey that women are forgetful,
helpless, stupid, emotional, approval seeking where as men are sharp, resourceful, intelligent,
rational and approvers. Most of these advertisements are subliminal in nature. The presence of
mothers in these advertisements is almost negligible. Mothers, being the stereotypical projection
of Indian women are convincing but the emotions between the daughter and the father is
misinterpreted in my opinion. However, since advertisements are drawn from the belief already
present in the culture, their valorising further reinforces and re-creates these notions.
Lastly, I agree to the fact that the medium of television has an enormous potential to shape and
reshape women’s attitudes and should be used to portray images consistent with human dignity
and rights of girls and women.
Congratulations are due to Mr. Amrit Gangar, author of Chapter 14, “Absence of an Age: Had
it been a Durga Trilogy?” not just for picking on a subject like growing up of a girl child or
adolescence, which he terms as bal-kishori, that is so clearly critical to a study of girl child yet
agonizingly absent in most of the references in life. The route of films to establish this point
comes across as a significantly different yet a hugely pleasant surprise to the reader. The
narration is gripping to the end. Gangar kicks off by highlighting the fact that how Indian
cinema has conveniently edited off this period from the girls life. Through his examples of
northern & eastern culture, he goes on to prove that how the films are nothing but true reflection
of what is prevalent in the society.
His knowledge of Indian and global Cinema and his penchant for keen observation is evident by
the veritable array of examples that he uses from Hindi to regional cinema and draws apt
comparisons with world cinema to unequivocally prove how Indian cinema has conveniently
misused the cinematic license to edit this age with a single cut, and moved generations in a
moment. His examples span generations (from the 1934, Naachwali to the, Kairee made in the
Millenium), genres (from the very arty to the completely commercial Satyam Shivam Sundaram)
and even geographies (Bollywood, Bengal, South Indian and Global).
He really lets the cat out of the bag by revealing some behind the scenes secrets, which only a
true industry expert and an experienced cinema critic could. He explains with deft examples of
how even film makers who ostensibly seem to project a pro-feminine message and a girl child’s
growing-up years, are in point of fact, only interested in exploring voyeuristic details for viewing
pleasures of a mostly masochistic audience. He explains this fact, very effectively and, I must
admit, very entertainingly, through the Mise-en-scene used by the filmmakers. Whether it is the
rape scene of the adolescent Nita from the movie Insaaf Ka Tarazu, the change of attire of Guddi

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from frock to saree or the sweet and sour experiences of the adolescent from Kairee, Gangar
manages to bring home the point in true cinematic style.

Gangar has astutely highlighted the diversity in the cultures by mainly drawing a comparison
between North and South India. Talking about the ‘coming of age’ or puberty is generally
considered as a taboo in Northern India whereas in Southern India it is celebrated. A fact well
highlighted by the example of Karik Raja’s Tamil film album, collection of sweet memories, that
depicts a scene in which a younger sister weeps because her brother hadn’t turned up for her
puberty function.
The article is made all the more interesting by interspersing of opinions and comments from
functional experts and film makers alike. It also points out a rare scene in a Gopalakirshnan
movie, showing a girl who bleeds while studying in her school classroom. The filmmaker points
out a major need to be more vocal about menstruation so that the guilt feeling is removed. Am
sure many women, definitely including myself, would passionately second this call.
The author while divulging the reasons for omission of this untouched topic explains that it is
considered as a taboo, soft porn and that there’s a lack of women as popular film directors. It is
perhaps one of the most non-preachy articles that one could ever come across, if at all, on this
topic. Purists could argue that there is a total absence of facts and figures in the narration,
however even they would not be able to stay untouched with the very visual and gripping manner
of bringing out the societal issues related to growing up of the girl child.
And finally in the climax of this blockbuster effort, he explains Satyajit Ray’s Apu trilogy- based
on a male protagonist and his life throughout the three editions - and his desire to convert the
same into Durga trilogy (a female pre-adolescent character and sister of Apu who dies in the first
edition), thus making it a film based on a female protagonist.
To explore this idea, he throws up a challenge to develop the story to film makers and functional
experts like Shoma Chatterjee, Vasanthi Sankaranarayanan, Rinki Bhattacharya and Dr. Udayan
Patel. The results throw up a wide spectrum. From a conservative Shoma Chatterjee who hits a
road block to the more liberated views/story of Vasanthi Sankaranarayanan who makes Durga
the protagonist and actually goes on to educate her and culminates by showing her as a writer
and an agit-prop feminist not in a typical manner but aesthetically sensitive to the woman’s space
and woman’s world.
The befitting climax in some ways also highlights the author’s near frustration of not finding a
reel or real example and hence wanting to explore the realms of fantasy. The narration is so
captivating and live that as a reader also you end up sensitized, agonized and frustrated at the
lack of efforts to represent the bal-kishori.

Ms Shalini Mathur and Dr Rohini Kashikar Sudhakar have provided us with a case studies
relating to ‘Adolescent girls’ in chapter numbers 15 and 17 respectively.
Ms Shalini Mathur’s case studies are of the adolescent girls in protective homes run by the
Government in North India in the early 90’s. She provides detailed information about the
working of such protective homes and brings to our notice that such homes are more like jails by
bringing out the fact that there is no connection of the outside world with these girls and vice-
versa. However, the girls are provided with basic amenities of food, health, education and
security.
Ms Mathur has mentioned that these girls are detained under three provisions i.e., ‘moral
danger’, caught with boys and controversy between father and husband. The ways to get out of

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these homes are again a compromise because they would either have to be taken back by their
family or get married or by proving to the magistrate that they are independent enough to
survive.
To enhance the study, the author narrates two case studies, one of Naseema, who was raped by
her step-father’s friend and was impregnated by him. Not accepted by her family, she was sent to
a protective home and was later on rescued by her sister. The second one was the case of a Dalit
girl Savitri, who eloped with a Dalit man unaware of his first marriage. She was not accepted
back by her family and hence was sent to a protective home where she married another Dalit
man whose first wife had absconded.
The analysis on these case studies is done to understand who is actually responsible for such
circumstances faced by the girls. The author rightly says that these girls, from their childhood
have been facing negligence and have been deprived of love, care and affection from home and
society. Therefore, they go beyond their doorstep in search of that little bit of love and affection.
I thank Ms. Shalini Mathur for giving such an informative case study of girls staying in
protective homes. These case studies reflect the ground realities about the protective homes.
Dr Rohini’s case studies are related to the girls residing in two slums in Mumbai. Out of the ten
case studies, I really appreciate two case studies which are of Sarita and Kapi. Sarita left her
drunkard husband and chose to be a single parent. Whereas, Kapi has rendered commendable
services which was beneficial for the slum she resides in, even though she was faced by threat at
every step she took. Eventually, she became a local political leader.
The plight of the educated girls in case studies of Gauri and Chanda was really heart breaking
because it shows that there is no recognition of young employed girls in slum areas. They usually
face hideous comments from the community while going for work in their formal attire whereas
they should have been appreciated about their decent level of education and employment.
Dr Rohini has provided us with wonderful discussions and conclusion relating to boys and girls
residing in slum areas which is required to improve their situation. She has given an overview
under the heads
 Parents beating, fights and intervention of police
 Less education and dropping out of school
 Patriarchy
 Economic freedom of girls
 Misuse of freedom by girls-due to which they have suffer in future
 Lack of proper parenting and mentoring
There is also consensus between Dr Rohini and Ms Mathur when it comes to lack of love and
affection and negligence of the girl child. For me, Dr Rohini’s case studies were so interesting to
read because for an urban middle class girl like me, will not come to have a nuanced
understanding of predicament of the girls in slum areas.
To solve the problems of adolescent girls as mentioned above there is need of an NGO
intervention. This can be seen in chapter number 16 that talks about Mukta foundation, which is
working towards care and empowerment of vulnerable, destitute and violence affected girls.
They are providing shelter to adolescent girls, give them support and strengthen their capabilities
and work for their improvement in education, health, economical and social rights. To achieve
these objectives they have done several activities.
Mukta has worked tremendously for these girls. In the past 4 years they have empowered about
50 girls. All the Mukta girls belong to lower socio economic strata, neglected and affected by
violence from family and community. The main challenges faced by Mukta were, the issue of
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rehabilitating these girls, sensitization of police, implementation of girls law, intervention of
media and awareness programmes for girls. I appreciate the work done by Mukta foundation for
immensely contributing to the development of the society through its activities
Dr. Ruby Ojha has also talked about NGO intervention for empowerment of adolescent girl in
chapter no 19. She has given a brief introduction of adolescent girls in India and has rightly said
that gender discrimination, illiteracy, lack of employment opportunities deprive women in their
mainstream development. A question may arise why there is a need for NGO intervention? To
which the author says adolescence is a time of increased vulnerability and potential risk and
therefore there is a need for preventive intervention.

Dr. Ojha also mentions about problems like early marriage, verbal and sexual abuse, no power in
decision making in addition to the other problems as mentioned earlier which hinder their
development. The author has discussed about rights relating to adolescent girls who is important
for them to know, like basic need of education, health, access to life-skill and livelihood, good
environment and participation of girls in changing the mind set of family and society. She has
talked about framework for action, which is “meeting the development and participation rights of
adolescent girls” that puts adolescent girl in forefront of development of three UN organization
i.e., UNICEF, UNFPA, WHO. It can also be seen that population council, the commonwealth
youth progamme, international centre for research on women and family care international is
going to conduct a project across 12 countries that will reach out to adolescent girls. It is good to
see that even international organizations are taking part in upliftment of adolescent girls. There is
a part in this chapter that mentions about a programme called Better Life Object Program (BLP)
conducted by Centre for Development and Population Activities (CEPDA) since 1989.
Lastly Dr Ojha has mentioned some conclusion and recommendations. Out of the several
recommendation I liked the most was participation of society, educationalist and community
leader for upliftment of adolescent girl, government coordination with NGO, creation of new
policies and programme for these girls
Chapter no 18 was very interesting because it was about children’s activism and it was surprising
to know how children helped in doing research work about the situation of children in village.
Ms Parul Sheth has beautifully mentioned about the working of Shaishav Balsena in Gujarat.
The main highlight about Shaishav Balsena is that they wanted to understand a situation from
children’s point of view and hence took them for research work. They conducted their research
work in 42 villages and these villages were divided between the team. Each team would have 2
Balsenas, 1 male and 1 female along with 4 MSW students. They had to collect data about
education, health, protection, family situation, girl’s situation, daily life cycle of children, and
information about the village. Each team would share their data with other teams. They compile
all the data’s given by the children and make a district level report. Feedback was taken from the
children who were working as Balsena and the MSW student. They concluded mentioning that
there is a need of similar state level report, they have gained confidence and have explored
various methodologies.
Advocate Vijay Hiremath has enlightened us with girl child law in chapter no 20. He has tried to
critically analyze the laws relating to girl child. I was glad to read that after Article 14 and
Article 15 which talks about right to equality, there was formulation of new Article 15(3) in
which it allows the government to make special legislation and scheme for the upliftment of
women in the country.

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The author first talks about The Child Marriage act, 2006 that tells about age limit of a boy and a
girl for marriage i.e., 21yrs for boys and 18 yrs for girls. I agree with the author that even though
this act talks about prohibition of child marriage, the girls are at disadvantage because their age
limit is less than boys. It was good to read The new Juvenile Justice Act, 2000 treats the girl and
boy child at equal level by leveling their age limit to 18 yrs. In The Immoral Trafficking
Prevention Act age limit is of 16yrs, the author rightly says that this act contradicts The Juvenile
Act and girl child are at disadvantage because mass trafficking is of women only. The most
important act which I felt was The Child Labour Act, 1986 where the age limit is 14yrs. This act
doesn’t distinguish between girl and boy age limit because of which girl child suffer since they
are violated and given more tedious job than boys. It was refreshing to read Goa Children’s Act
because it separately mentions girl child and ask the state to ensure that there should is no
difference between girl and boy child. He gives a summary of Indian Penal Code relating to
crime against women and its punishment. He has also mentioned about Government Scheme
relating to girl child.
The last Chapter no. 21 takes us through the National Symposium on Girls and Girlhood which
was conducted on November 6-8, 2008 at SNDT Women’s University, Mumbai organized by
VACHA and P.G department of Economics. This Chapter gives us a vivid picture of the
processes involved in the Symposium. There were many paper presentations, testimonies,
beautiful poem recital, singing of songs, play on girl children by various groups coming from
different Universities and States. While Symposium was going on in the committee room parallel
workshops involving girls were conducted for municipal school girls across Mumbai and
participating girls from other states of India.
It is rare to find such a comprehensive publication on girls that is so perceptive, in-depth,
multifaceted, rich in facts and figures and analytically sound. We strongly recommend this
volume to all women’s studies centres, women’s rights organizations, NGOs and GOs, media
and educational institutions and the UN system.

*Scholars at Post Graduate Studies and Research (PGSR), PG Department Economics,

SNDT Women’s University, Churchgate, Mumbai-20

Emails:
Rachna Amarnani <rachna.amarnani@gmail.com>,
Sakshi Goyal <rtrsakshi@gmail.com>,
Guruvaishnavi <guruvaishnavi@yahoo.co.in>,

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