Girls\u27 Right to Education in India: Bridging the Gap Between Intention and Implementation

We must recognize that women will never gain full dignity until their human rights are respected and protected. Hillary Clinton\u27s words at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing reverberated throughout the globe. Despite international legal documents such as CEDAW, legal frameworks commonly prove ineffective in substantially safeguarding the rights of women because of their ambiguous language and the inability of the international community to enforce these expectations. My research is rooted in women\u27s right to education, as education is a vital mobilizer when uplifting marginalized groups. I am focused on evaluating the reformed Indian public education system and the gaps in the legal framework for these nation-wide educational programs. The Indian Government\u27s Department of School Education and Literacy passed the Right to Education Act (RTE) in August 2009 theoretically giving women and girls equal access to schooling, but in practice only serving a fraction of the country\u27s female population. By shadow writing the RTE and other legal foundations relevant to India\u27s transition towards gender equality, I aim to uncover the linguistic weaknesses in India\u27s legal framework and propose amendments to these documents that could better protect women\u27s right to education during the implementation process.https://orb.binghamton.edu/research_days_posters_spring2020/1078/thumbnail.jp