Status of Girl Child Education in Rural and Tribal Areas of Telangana State

Education of a girl child is necessary for the overall development of our country. Encouraging girl child education is known to delay the age at marriage and also reduce fertility levels, maternal and child mortality levels and promote the quality life of the entire family and next generation. The results of the study indicated that majority (80.83%) of the respondents were illiterates and majority (42.96%) of girls had secondary school education followed by primary (31.69%) and intermediate (16.19%) and very few (9.16%) had graduation and above. More than half (54.55%) of the respondent’s girl children dropped out at secondary school level followed by primary (27.27%) and intermediate (18.18%) level of education. The major reason for being dropouts by the respondent’s girl children were due to economic reasons (72.72%) followed by 40.90 per cent of the dropouts due to other reasons like migration and lack of interest in studies. A large majority in rural (91.67%) and tribal (88.33%) and in total (90.00%) of the respondents were showing favorable attitude towards education of girl child and majority (98.33%) of the respondents were aware of Government scheme i.e., Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya supporting girl child education; majority (98.33%) of the respondents has awareness.