We Want to Study Again (Hum Phir Padhna Chahte Hai)
Three girls. Three stories. One dream, shared by millions of children across the globe.
Let’s begin with the question: When you wake up each morning and dress in your uniform, when you eat your breakfast and head to school, mind full of complaints about the teacher you have to face today or the homework you didn’t finish due to procrastination, about how you wish you could’ve slept in or how nice it would be to call in sick just to laze around, do you ever remember the starving children on the streets, the child labourers, the girls trapped in brothels? Answer honestly - do you take your education for granted?
Most of us forget the privilege we have to be a part of a world so foreign to some children that they cannot even fathom having access to paper and a pen, let alone the safe, warm, decorated environment that are our classrooms, with exceptional, well-educated teachers that we grumble about each day. It is easy to become out of touch when you are so accustomed to the rights you are granted, and that’s where the simple genius, the masterpiece that is the linked video, comes in.
What may, on the surface, appear to be a short video with simple editing and comparatively low-quality footage, actually embodies a far more desperate and urgent message, and a heart-wrenching truth for girls around the globe.
We are introduced to three smart and vibrant girls with a spark, each pleading for the right to return to school, a place that gleams in their eyes as an escape from the reality that they witness their mothers and all other women in their spheres endure. The heart grows heavier and heavier as each girl describes her predicament: a future that is out of her hands as a result of being denied access to education and knowledge and, consequently, independence.
There has been a rise in recent media, widespread on Twitter and TikTok alike, of distasteful memes pertaining to foolish jokes about women’s suffrage, with privileged girls who are simply tired from school wishing that no one had ever bothered to fight for women’s rights to education, instead leaving them to be housewives. These people do not realise the blatant ignorance of inequality that they are playing into just for a laugh; yes, it is that serious. To make comedy of the restrictive and traumatic reality for so many millions of girls around the world infuriates with how it, firstly, depicts women to be weak and stupid, and secondly, makes fun of a horrifying reality continuously faced by millions of girls today. The supposedly funny comment is not only obviously nescient regarding differences in class, but also of those in culture and ethnicity.
To those girls who make such posts, let me remind you: No one is denying you your choice to be a housewife. Why not make that individual decision for yourself, and keep away from posting ignorant Tweets in the name of humour about a situation you clearly cannot sympathise with, as real, vulnerable young girls around the world are continued to be denied the right to education?
As highlighted by Rita, it is important to note that the lack of access to education is starkly gendered, with education being perceived as an androcentric right particularly in the subcontinent as a result of cultural norms cultivated by poverty. The expectation is for girls to sacrifice their right to knowledge to stay confined within the domestic sphere, entrusted with the raising of the children and the management of the household, whilst men must work to be breadwinners for their households. These gender roles are not inherently negative; motherhood is a beautiful role granted to women which cannot be replicated, and the upbringing of children is an incredibly important role that should hold higher value in modern society. The issue arises, however, when this becomes conflated with unequal domestic labour, and worryingly, unequal upbringing and education rights. Often, it is not seen as worthwhile to give girls an education, as within households, the girl will be married off, living in another household, and therefore her education does not prove beneficial to the household responsible for it. Quickly, girls are subjugated and oppressed, confined to the responsibilities of the household. It is important also to note that many boys also have to sacrifice their right of education in order to partake in often manual labour to earn money for their household; the key factor here, therefore, is evidently capitalism’s inability to protect the most vulnerable of the poor, the children who should be safeguarded against such worldly adult matters.
A lack of access to education rapidly opens a can of worms; in order to find freedom from the oppressive cycles faced by generations of women in the subcontinent, traffickers entice young, naive, innocent girls with a promise of a better, glamorous life in the city, speaking of more fulfilling jobs in which they will have a right to their own money and spending habits, and independence from the confines of domesticity. Journalist and author Ruchira Gupta captures this perfectly in her Emmy award winning documentary Selling of Innocents.
If your heart bleeds for these girls like mine does, and if you want to stop taking your right to education for granted, join us today by supporting Apne Aap International, an NGO that aims to end sex-trafficking by creating a world in which no girl is bought or sold. Use the links below to find out more, and follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn and FaceBook today!
Bibliography:
Antoninis, M. and Montoya, S. (2022) New measurement shows that 244 million children and youth are out of school, World Education Blog. Available at: https://world-education-blog.org/2022/09/01/new-measurement-shows-that-244-million-children-and-youth-are-out-of-school/#:~:text=The%20new%20estimates%20by%20the,out%20on%20school%20in%202021. (Accessed: 29 May 2024).
Apne Aap International (2016) We want to study again (hum phir padhna Chahte Hai), YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1kPsXvly6A&ab_channel=ApneAapWomenWorldwideVideo (Accessed: 29 May 2024).
Gupta, R. (2020) Selling of Innocents: A documentary on sex-trafficking from Nepal to Mumbai, India(1997), YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LniBkpHLd4g&ab_channel=RuchiraGupta (Accessed: 29 May 2024).
Nyasprivo (2024) TikTok Meme, TikTok. Available at: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGe4TLPty/ (Accessed: 29 May 2024).