By Swati Srivastava | Project Leader
Meena is from the Sonthwa Village in Sheopur District, Madhya Pradesh. Most girls don’t go to school in her village because they get married – when they’re as young as 13. Child marriage has forced girls in her village to dropout from the school and most of them have only studied till Class V. Social inequality plays a huge role in restricting a girl child’s empowerment in these parts of Madhya Pradesh but things changed for Meena when she became a Nanhi Kali in the year 2006.
Her parents depend on agricultural for their livelihood and their annual income is less than Rs. 2 lakhs per annum. She comes from a village where people think girls should stay at home and manage the house, but she managed to convince her parents to give her a chance and she did not disappoint them. She has recently passed Class 10 where she achieved an astounding 92% and made her parents and her village proud.
She is the first girl in Sheopur District to get 92% in Class 10 examinations. And this success didn’t come easy – she has clocked over 3000 hours in the programme, which included academic support, cultural and club activities where girls in the programme are educated and monitored on health and hygiene. In a place where girls aren’t allowed to study, Meena truly stands out from the crowd and is an inspiration to other girls in her village. Her favourite subject is maths and she wants to become an engineer. We wish her good luck in all her future endeavours.
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