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Times of India
FADA - Father & Daughter
Alliance - http://www.globalfada.org/index.html
FADA Video: http://www.globalfada.org/youtube.html
India-Delhi - FADA Builds
Bonds Between Daughters & Fathers & Girls' Education
Neelam
Raaj | TNN
Daughters are usually daddy's girls but for 10-year-old Sargina, Nabab is a
stranger. Her father is often away, busy making a living sorting
scraps from a garment factory so that he can feed his family of nine. Sargina
looks after her younger siblings and helps her mother with domestic chores.
Soon, things will change. Father and daughter will meet once a month with 20
other pairs at a programme designed to help them do something they dont , and
not often enough: spend time together.
The programme, called the Father and Daughter Alliance (FADA), will not just
strengthen a bond. It will sensitize fathers to the importance of sending their
daughters to school. Traditionally, girls are closer to their mothers but men
are the decision-makers . It is they who decide whether a daughter goes to school
or not so we will engage them, says US-based Pedro Moreno who launched the
India chapter of FADA in the Capital this week.
Even feminism, he says, has stopped demonizing men. Males are part of the
problem but they can also be part of the solution, he says, whose teenage
daughter Jessica accompanied him on his previous visit to India.
FADA, which has partnered with Delhi-based NGO Deepalaya, has made a small
start by enrolling 20 girls in school. Next on the cards is fathers
associations in two slum clusters Sanjay Colony and Jagdamba Camp where
Deepalaya runs schools.
One of its first members will be Rameshwar Prasad who plans to enlist other
fathers. Most men in the slum still dont bother educating a daughter though
many send their sons to English-medium schools. They just want the girl married
off, he says. Prasad lives in a slum in Khirki village where dropout rates for
girls are high.
UNESCO statistics show that there is little gender parity in education. Of the
774 million illiterate adults worldwide, 64% are women. For the Indian girl
child, the chances of getting an education are even slimmer. Unescos report
released last year revealed that for every 100 boys out of school in India ,
the corresponding number of girls is a whopping 426.
The FADA initiative hopes to make a small dent in these figures by involving
fathers. Men pass on not only their property to sons but also skills and
self-esteem . Now, we want daughters to share this inheritance as well, says T
K Mathew, who heads Deepalaya.
The NGO will impart formal education to the younger girls and vocational
training to older ones who may not be able to cope with a rigid school system .
Enrollment targets are 1,000 girls by early next year, after which FADA aims to
open chapters in countries such as Afghanistan, Yemen and Guatemala where
female literacy rates are low.
In India, the movement will begin with a dialogue and it wont just be daughters
who benefit. Issues like domestic violence and alcohol abuse will also figure
so that men realize that their responsibility goes beyond providing three meals
for their families, says Moreno.
But for now, the challenge is clear. Fathers have to stop being distant
onlookers and make an effort to see the world through their daughters eyes.
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