An academic excellence and leadership development program for deserving and talented girls from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds. The program transforms them into SHALINIS (empowered and dignified women) by combining scholarship with personalized mentoring, personality development, and employability training. Since its inception in 2002, the program has impacted more than 17,000 deserving adolescent girls across 14 states of India. Program alumni aspire for professional careers.
India is home to over 113 million adolescent girls. Only 30% of them study up to high school and only 8.3% of them graduate. Financial constraints within the family, gender preferences, lack of awareness, and guidance are key reasons for this. Deep-rooted social and cultural practices prevent them from accessing the safety net of education and entering the world of work. Almost 50% of girls are married off before the age of 18. The women worker participation rate is a dismal 16%.
The program provides a scholarship to academically bright girls from low-income families, ensuring they do not drop out of formal education. Beyond financial support, the program includes one-on-one mentoring, capacity building in life and employable skills, career guidance and counselling, corporate exposure, internships, and placement support to transform them into career-focused professionals with a growth mindset and active citizens. These young women will create a positive multiplier effect
The project will educate 60000 girls by 2030, empowering them to rise out of poverty, giving them agency, a voice, and grooming them to be active citizens. It will enable them to provide for themselves and their families and live a life of dignity. It will contribute to nation-building through women's participation in the workforce. Most importantly, it will change the mindsets of their family and community about the importance of education for girls. Delayed marriage and childbirth.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
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