Aug 28, 2024 09:19 PM IST
Investing in girls is vital for sustainable development, driving health, education, and economic growth. India’s initiatives show promise, but more support is needed.
Social capital is a fascinating construct — it is capital that is difficult to quantify but can be life-changing. That potential for change is the highest when we invest in our girls. It is one of our most powerful catalysts for sustainable development and societal transformation. However, regrettably, investing in girls remains overlooked around the world.
That is unforgivable. The evidence is clear on why the situation should be to the contrary: When girls have access to quality schooling, health care, and employment opportunities, it has powerful cascading effects. Health and nutrition indicators improve. Child marriages decline. Families and communities thrive. This, in turn, fuels economic growth, reduces poverty, and diminishes inequalities, which is why we call such gender work “girl capital”. The focus is on the fact that funding this is not a handout but an investment.
The Children’s Investment Fund Foundation’s (CIFF) partnership with the Rajasthan government has already seen the enrolment of 100,000 girls in secondary school. But there are many opportunities to go further. As India continues to pursue its ambition of becoming the third-largest economy in the world, there is huge potential to focus on the 120 million girls aged between 10 and 19 as sustainable, catalytic drivers of this growth. Initiatives like Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, which protects girls and promotes their education, are excellent places to start.
The aim in CIFF’s work with the government of India and implementing partners is to be as ambitious as possible in delivering for girls of all ages, with support for work across health care, education, and skilling, with digital enablement boosting work in each of these areas.
On health, India deserves credit for prioritising girls and women in its work. That was particularly true at the recent G20 Summit in India. The government of India’s Global Initiative of Digital Health (GIDH) has a particular focus on women and girls. The scale and complexity of the country in general, plus the unique gender context, make ambitious digital health care the ideal approach.
In education, the Digital Girls’ Hub (DGH) aims to equip girls in rural areas with access to digital literacy, jobs, social protection schemes, and entrepreneurial skills using the existing network of government-run Common Services Centres. These hubs will promote self-sufficiency among the girls and enhance community resilience, awareness of entitlements, and the capability to access them. In becoming agents of the empowerment of the community, the social standing of these women is also elevated.
Given India’s young population and the number of people entering the job market, skilling and employment are national priorities. The government has pioneered innovative programmes such as the Skill Impact Bond (which was recently showcased in the Economic Survey) that aims to support 50,000 disadvantaged youth — 60% of whom are women — with skilling and livelihoods. As an Impact Bond, funding is linked with measurable gender outcomes in skills development and job placement. The government’s openness to implementing this innovative approach is already yielding results, and it can be a model for the world to emulate. All of these projects are evidence of the impressive breadth and speed with which India has embraced digital technology. This digital approach has transformed everything from financial inclusion to cash benefits to delivering vital public services. This has benefited those hardest to reach, including women. From education apps to e-governance portals, India is pioneering the ways in which technology can empower women and drive social progress at a national scale. But whilst these are all encouraging, they do serve to reinforce the need to guard and act against the gender divide in the digital world.
Realising the Viksit Bharat vision will need further investment in girl capital. The task is clear: Unlocking the potential of millions of young girls is not just a moral imperative but an economic no-brainer. And we know too that there is a vast array of options available to make this investment — whether that’s ensuring girls are at the centre of initiatives like the GIDH and DGH, or that they’re able to benefit from national skilling programmes. It is time now for all of us who can deliver to do so.
If we deliver for India’s girls, we will allow them to realise their own ambitions and dreams, while also paying back the richest of dividends — enabling India to become a developed nation, and thereby unlocking the immense potential for sustainable development around the world.
Chris Hohn is founder, Children’s Investment Fund Foundation.The views expressed are personal
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