Bringing Seema and many other girls #BackToSchool!

Rinku*, a 13 - year old girl from a village in Rajasthan, and her brothers have been to school since childhood. Everything was fine until Rinku faced a common challenge for young girls in her village: marriage.

In Rinku's community great respect is attributed to the elderly. So when several years ago her grandmother said it was time for Rinku to marry, it was indisputable. Rinku protested but her pleas fell on deaf ears.

Rinku married a boy 4 years older in a traditional ceremony where many children were married simultaneously. Luckily Rinku wasn't sent to her husband's house immediately and continued to attend school for a while.

In 2014, field coordinator Lakshmi Narayan started visiting Rinku's school. He helped elect Bal Sabha (Girls' Council) members, regularise activities and improve the teaching of Life Skills. Rinku was elected Bal Panch (Girls' Council Leader).

Rinku says, “Suddenly I began to understand how empowering education truly was. My mind was opened to a world outside my textbook. There were four other married girls in the Bal Sabha. I wondered whether things would have been different if our parents and grandparents were educated. I couldn't change the past, but I could change the future for other girls!”

Now, with Rinku as Bal Panch, the Bal Sabha's mission was preventing child marriage and getting all girls enrolled. The girls, accompanied by Lakshmi Narayan, even went to nearby villages to raise awareness about the importance of education.

Bal Sabha members, Kruti* and Prajakta*, were to be married soon. Kruti fasted for 4 days in protest. Her father was only getting his daughter married due to community pressure. With help from Lakshmi Narayan, the girls persuaded Kruti's father to call off her marriage. Regrettably Prajakta's marriage could not be stopped. The police were called to investigate on the day of the marriage, but the ceremony was wrapped up before they arrived.

The incident inspired Rinku's dream of becoming a police woman to be able to stop what is not right. Unfortunately, her dream faces uncertainty. She is currently in 8th grade but her village school doesn't have classes beyond this. She will have to travel to another village to continue studying. Rinku's grandmother disapproves of sending her far away as she feels it is unsafe. Lakshmi Narayan has been speaking to the family to find a solution.

Rinku says she will fight for her dream. “In the village we visited last year girls weren't sent to school. Our efforts bore no fruit because mothers wanted their daughters to do domestic chores. This year we will try again. We will keep trying to bring change, even if we fail. This is what I have learnt from Educate Girls and being a Bal Sabha leader. I've seen Lakshmi Narayan Ji go door-to-door speaking to community members even when they resist accepting what he has to say. There is so much to do! I cannot give up on my dream to keep studying.”

*Names changed to protect the identity of the minors.

A big thank you to all donors who generously supported our BackToSchool microproject!

The funds gathered on Global Giving, coupled with other sources of income (institutional grants, corporate funding, etc.) have enabled Educate Girls to conduct the 2015 enrollment drive successfully across thousands of villages in Rajasthan, India.

So far in the academic year 2015-16, Educate Girls has already enrolled over 70,000 primary-school aged girls. Out of these, 27,000 girls have begun or resumed school in Class 2-8 and some 43,000 have been enrolled in Class 1. More enrollments will be completed until the end of the academic year, but it can already be said that the number of out-of-school girls enrolled over the past months is a great achievement, as it exceeds last year’s overall enrollment – 55,500 girls!

What comes next on the ground, for the now enrolled girls? While, during the first months of the academic year, we focus primarily on enrolling the maximum number of out-of-school girls, our main activities post the enrollment drive will aim at boosting students’ learning outcomes and life-skills as well as improving school infrastructure and governance.

Educate Girls works in educationally backward districts that are carefully selected to ensure operations are rolled out where the needs are the greatest. All rural villages of these districts are covered by Educate Girls’ intervention. At present, Educate Girls is operating in 7 districts and about 7,700 schools in Rajasthan, India. In each village, local champions for girls’ education, called Team Balika, are trained and empowered to plant the seed of change at the community level. Together with the field staff, the Team Balika visit families in the community. Aided by existing government data (Child Tracking Survey), they thoroughly draw a list of all out-of-school girls so that no single girl is missed out. Educate Girls talks then to parents and community leaders during home visits and village meets to sensitize them to the importance and benefits of girls’ education and to create awareness about India’s RTE Act, 2009, which makes primary education free of charge and compulsory for every child in India. Through use of diplomacy and unremitting efforts in advocating the girl child’s cause, Educate Girls stands up against the traditional mindset and convinces parents to send their daughters to school.

This is how Seema, who, at the age of 8, used to spend her days grazing the cattle and doing household chores, finally got enrolled in school. Tens of thousands of other girls have found that luck when their path crossed with Educate Girls. We whole-heartedly thank you for helping us make quality education accessible to India’s most marginalized girls!

To know more about Educate Girls, you can check out our Website or YouTube Channel and keep yourself posted about our progress by following us on Facebook, Twitter or Blog.

We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!