Female Autonomy throuhg Education at Doorstep

My journey to work to increase the level of Female Autonomy started way back in  1990 when my younger sister completed primary schooling (5^th grade) and had no option but to sit back at home and assist the mother in domestic works. Our society is very conservative.  It is part of our culture to keep the girls safe till they are married as their dignity is thought to be related to the prestige of the family. The concern for their safety was considered far more important than their education Thus, only boys were allowed to go to other village to pursue education after primary schooling.   

As a young boy, when I heard that my sister could not study further, I wanted to bring about a change the mindset but as you know behavioural change is not easy. Time flew by, and I grew older. As a young man doing graduation in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in New Delhi, I was committed to challenge this on two fronts: the family level, and the community level, in order to ensure access to school for girls of my village. 

1. I worked on the knowledge, attitude and practice of parents on girls’ education and prepared my family to agree to give a bicycle to my younger sister and let her go to upper primary school in Ghazipur city (about 7 KM from the village). This was a big cultural shift for which no one was ready.

-       Initially, in a patriarchal society like ours, it was very difficult to convince male members to let  girls go long distance on cycle for education. It was like committing one of the greatest sins of the world. 

-       During the process- I had to convince them through evidences in religious books, consulting religious leaders and meeting with community leaders to change their decision in favour of education for girls.

2.   Upgradation of primary school to middle school was my first priority and I channelized volunteers, social entrepreneurs and other like- minded supporters from our society. We patiently waited for the changes  and it eventually happened as we organized    awareness camps and used advocacy tools to educate people about importance of girl child. The message was very clear- “ if you educate a boy you educate a person & if you educate a girl you educate a generation”   

A group was formed with the key objective to increase ‘Female Autonomy’.   One of the important tools is to provide “Education at Doorsteps” and to break the vicious cycle of poverty by empowering girls and ensuring access to education at their own locations.

Behaviour change of the community towards girls’ education was one of the key areas of intervention. We intervened on this by working on the community’s knowledge, attitude and practice that slows the socialization process of girls. This mindset blocks the path to education.

Our organization’s dream is to provide every  child (with more focus on girl) access to quality education, healthy life and a society free of violence.

At a very young age I was able to identify the social problem in our society and I pledged to channelize available resources that could bring female autonomy.  Over the years we have created a mass base in favour of Changing the age old Mindset to keep girls at home. We have seen major changes in female autonomy in my village and a few others. . In 2003-04, the village’s primary school was upgraded to middle school. Now the children can complete 8 years of schooling in their village itself.

The social entrepreneurs and volunteers trained during the period have now started to create access to High School (9^th to 10^th Standard) in the village for both girls and boys.

There is a sea change in the attitude of the villagers as they view education as a key to success.  A remote patriarchal  village of India is now allowing   girls to pursue higher education-graduation and post graduation. . Village educated girls are now becoming teachers, advocates and are continuously making an impact in our community. There is a lot more that can be done in many more villages like Kataila and I am persistent on making a difference in the lives of half the population of this country.  I was able to identify similar problem in the slums of Delhi when I was a student. Thus we decided to bring Education at Doorstep for slum children for school dropouts.

We started Two Hours A Week Programme (THWP) in 1995, where every was motivated to  donate at least two hours in a week to help educate the dropout teenagers in the slums close to JNU campus. We opened an education centre to coordinate volunteer service and helped provide free education in their slum.  This program started with 5 volunteers but eventually  there were  200 plus volunteers and we were able to expand to different slums in South Delhi. 

In 2002 the THWP was registered as Ark Foundation with the aim to creating access to education within the walking distance of a child.

Children’s voice was core to our heart. We started a wall magazine called Baal Chaupaal (BC) where children would share their ideas and challenges. Later in 2012 the first printed version of BC came up. It is a quarterly children magazine to give voice to children. We hope to knit international voices of children through this magazine.