ed in the womb, soon after birth or during their child-bearing years. Most countries will miss the Education For All goal of a 50 percent improvement in adult literacy—a challenge that disproportionately affects women, who make up about two-thirds of the 775 million adults who cannot read. In addition to addressing lagging progress in female mortality reduction and access to education and economic opportunity, the World Development Report 2012 calls for renewed efforts to increase women’s voice and agency in the home and society, and to limit the reproduction of gender inequality across generations. Gender-based violence also continues to plague women around the world. According to CARE’s Women and Empowerment report, at least one in three females has been physically or sexually abused, often repeatedly and by a relative or acquaintance. Violence rivals cancer as a cause of morbidity and mortality for women of child-bearing age.
In India, the case for renewed commitment to women and girls is clear. The government has made significant efforts to improve conditions for women and girls, including creating a large-scale girls’ education program that provides schools and support for girls in rural areas and has already helped to narrow the gender gap. Still, much remains to be done by the government and all other stakeholders. The child mortality rate in India is the highest in the world and some estimate that in India 1 million girls are killed in the womb each year, and. In terms of education, gender overlaps with other causes of marginalization, including poverty, location (rural vs. urban) and social factors, such caste and tribe to worsen access and outcomes. For instance, according to the World Inequality Database on Education, in 2005, 31 percent of women age 17-22 years had less than four years of school, compared to 16 percent of men. Among the poor in the poorer regions of India, the numbers were as high as 91 percent of women compared to 55 percent of men.
Of all the challenges that women and girls face, to some, having no voice is among the most intolerable. Heroines the world over who struggle to be free and to make their voices heard, even when confronting lethal consequences. Malala was shot because she voiced the right to education for women in Pakistan, and Nirbhaya in India was brutally raped and murdered because she expressed her right to travel freely. For any known story, there are millions of lesser known cases such as Khusboo. This young woman in Uttar Pradesh, India received an education—a gender-based education that made empowerment the central goal—and she thereby found the courage to voice her right to complete high school. She resisted her father’s attempt to marry her off at 16 and for that she was beaten mercilessly and cast out of his house. To share her story and her voice, she recently made an award-winning autobiographical video that showed the abuse she faced and the triumph of holding up the diploma she earned.
On International Women’s Day, let us celebrate women’s triumphs, but let us also consider what more can be done to confront the reality that so many women face. The following are strategies that show promise in India and can be replicated and scaled.
Strategy #1: Self-Organize and Challenge the Status Quo
Advocacy campaigns that demand gender equality, examine gender norms and address the inconsistency of patriarchal structures in democratic societies are critical and can be highly effective. On February 14, 2013, Valentine’s Day, millions of women and many men rose up against gender-based violence across the globe. In India, thousands of people of all ages and gender took to the streets with banners, slogans, songs, street plays and dances, celebrating women and supporting their right to control their lives, their right to a safe world, their right to a voice. The India’s Daughters Campaign represents a civil society effort along these lines and has used mobile technology to engage and organize youth in the most rural areas, including the students at 28 girls’ schools.
Campaigning a