Boys’ perspectives on girls’ marriage and school dropout: a qualitative study revisiting a structural intervention in Southern India

Abstract

Girls’ education has for many decades been central to the global development agenda, due to its positive impact on girls’ health and wellbeing. In this paper, the authors revisit boys’ attitudes, behaviours and norms related to girls’ education, following the Samata intervention to prevent girls’ school dropouts in Northern-Karnataka, South India. Data were collected from 20 boys in intervention villages before and after the intervention, and analysis was undertaken using a thematic-framework approach. Findings suggest that while boys did hold some attitudes and beliefs that supported girls’ education and delayed-marriage, these remained within the framework of gender-inequitable norms concerning girls’ marriageability, respectability/family-honour. Participants criticised peers who sought to jeopardise girls’ respectability by teasing and community gossip about girls-boys’ communication in public. Boys who rejected prevailing norms of masculinity were subjected to gossip, ridicule and violence by the community. Boys’ attitudes and beliefs supported girls’ education but were conditional on the maintenance of gendered hierarchies at household and interpersonal levels. Social norms concerning girls’ honour, respectability and the role of boys as protectors/aggressors appeared to influence boys’ response to girls’ school dropouts. Future interventions aiming to address girls’ education and marriage must invest time and resources to ensure that intervention components targeting boys are relevant, appropriate and effective.

Keywords:

• Education
• early-marriage
• adolescence
• India
• gender-norms

Acknowledgments

The study team would like to thank the adolescent boys for participating in the study and engagement with the intervention. We also thank Srikanta Murthy Heggadadevanakote Srinivasamurthy, Kumar Vadde, Tejaswini Hiremath, Vanishree, Uma Kudrimath and the Samata team for their significant contribution to implementing the intervention and the evaluation. We acknowledge the translation work offered by Ambuja Vinayak. Finally, we thank the interviewer Chetan Kumar, field staff and the administration and finance teams of Karnataka Health Promotion Trust for their ongoing hard work and support. The trial protocol can be accessed at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25881037

Disclosures

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

Project Samata was funded by the UK Department for International Development (UKAid) (grant number- PHGHZL69-16) as part of STRIVE, a 6-year programme of research and action devoted to tackling the structural drivers of HIV (http://STRIVE.lshtm.ac.uk/) and ViiV Healthcare. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the policies or position of the UK government or ViiV Healthcare. None of the funding sources played a role in the design of the study, data collection, analysis, interpretation, or writing up of the results. The corresponding authors had full access to all the data in the study and had final responsibility for the decision to submit for publication.