This refers to the editorial, “Both education and safety” (July 24). It is unfortunate that as many as 100 girl students from six villages in Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh had to stop going to school because of the harassment they faced from eve-teasers. The police woke up to tackle the issue only after these girls decided to leave the school.
We cannot blame the girls or their families for the decision. It is obvious that safety has a higher priority than education. It does not surprise us anymore when we very well know how the police functions in the State of Uttar Pradesh.
As if making families from rural areas of our country sending their girls to schools was not a difficult task in itself, we now have to convince them about their safety as well.
Indeed, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitious ‘Beti padhao, beti bachao’ and ‘selfie with daughter’ campaigns will be successful in the real sense only when we are able to create a safe environment for our girls everywhere in society.