Sustainable Solutions to Save the Girl Child

Many of you would have read the article “Save the Girl Child, pleads Manmohan” in Times Of India on April 29th . I couldn’t help but agonise . Here we are living in the 20th century, the year is 2008, and to hear such a plea from the Prime Minister of our country to stop the “inhuman and uncivilized practice” of female foeticide depicts the truly remorseful state of girls in our nation. India’s child sex ratio (i.e. number of girls per 1000 boys) is only 927, and states like Punjab and Haryana are among the worst offenders with child sex ratios of only 798 and 819! The norm is usually a higher number of girls compared to boys.

While our government is tackling this grievous situation by cracking down on medical practitioners and enforcing the Pre-Conception and Pre natal Diagnostics Techniques Act which makes it illegal to reveal the sex of the child before it is born, is this the sustainable solution?

How about empowering the girl child by educating her? Discrimination against the girl child may begin before the girl is born in India, but it persists in the event she is allowed to be born. She is normally housebound and as a result of gender stereotyping is confined to doing household chores such as cooking, cleaning , fetching water , looking after younger siblings or elderly and sick relatives. Education is considered to be of secondary importance, and is only given consideration if there are no costs attached to it. While Govt schools are free, parents balk even at the costs of uniforms, notebooks etc and would rather not send their girls to school than pay for these. Its no wonder then that the drop out rate for girls in India even at primary school level is almost 40%.!

While many Not for Profits are working on stemming this drop out rate, the Mahindra group, through their Nanhi kali project, have encouraged corporates and individuals to participate in this change process by sponsoring a girl’s education. For a sum as little as Rs 1800 or $65 , the Nanhi Kali project provides not only academic support to the girls but also provides them with material support in the form of uniforms, school bags, notebooks and even underclothes. Our implementation partner, Naandi Foundation works within the community and sensitizes them on gender issues.

On a recent trip to a Nanhi kali project area in an impoverished tribal area in Udaipur, Anita, a differently abled Nanhi Kali pulled me aside and lead me to her home. The project worker told me that Anita was studying in the 7th Std and is considered the brightest girl in her class. Anita’s home consisted of a 2 room muddy hut , of which one room had no walls. The second room was dark, dingy with no windows or ventilation. Apart from a couple of utensils, Anita’s house was completely bare. Later I was stunned to hear that the only clothes Anita possessed were the 2 pairs uniforms given to her from Nanhi Kali!

Anita has the potential to become a software engineer. She has the potential to transform not only her life, but that of her family. Through the Nanhi Kali project, we will ensure this happens. We will educate her, teach her lifeskills, and groom her to become the role model for her community. Once she becomes independent and a bread winner, and takes care of her family , wouldn’t the community look at her with a different mindset? Would they still think of killing their girls?

Or would this trigger a sustainable change?

Join the Nanhi Kali movement at http://www.nanhikali.org/ to be a part of this change process.

You Can Bring on GirlSmiles!

“If you educate a man, you educate an individual and if you educate a woman, you educate a family, nation and generations !”.

From the varied social issues that India is facing today, we are focussed on addressing a combination of two critical issues – Empowering the Girl Child through Education. The reason is fairly simple – social transformation is about changing mindsets and we believe that by changing the way women view themselves, the mindsets of male members and society at large, will transform itself.

As a nation, despite all the progress, India continues to be plagued by superstition , ancient legacy systems and biases. These are amplified in the case of the approach to women and the treatment of the girl child. In the absence of an "educated" and literate environment, as a result of gender stereotyping, pre-defined roles and financial priorities for the male child dominate decisions.

Female infanticide aside, the girl child even once born, is more often than not, left without options to create a life for herself. Household chores and family are assumed to be her responsibility even as a little child. School and education are secondary only after the primary responsibility is taken care of.

The K.C Mahindra Education Trust aims to address these issues by supporting the education of underprivileged girl children through our initiative Project Nanhi Kali. Nanhi Kali, meaning a small bud, is our flagship project that was launched in 1996, to provide a consolidated sponsorship for the education of the under privileged girl child. The objective of the sponsorship is to ensure that she has access to 10 years of quality school based education not only through continuous academic support i.e. study classes but also through material support like uniforms, socks & shoes, school bags and stationery to enable her to go to school with dignity.

The magnitude of the issue of female illiteracy in India, made us realize that there was a need for concerted effort to address the issue and hence we entered into a partnership with Naandi Foundation, a reputed Indian not-for-profit organization working at grassroot level in many different and difficult parts of India. Partnering with this visionary not-for-profit organization gave K. C. Mahindra Education Trust not only qualitative improvement in our project but also a greater bandwidth which will enable us to reach our shared goal of supporting the education of 1, 00,000 disadvantaged girls in India by 2008. Today KCMET and Naandi have together been successful in reaching out to over 37,000 girls in urban, rural and tribal India.

Nanhi Kali has grown as a girl child education movement by allowing thousands of individuals as well as corporates to partner and participate by sponsoring the girl child’s education.

We still have a long way to go. Our aim is to reach out to 100,000 girls and we need all the help we can get. That help also comes in through you telling us what you think about what we are doing. We promise that through this site, we will keep you posted on what we are doing, how we are progressing, our successes and our failures. We look for your support in all of that. Because we know that in order for you to truly make that difference, its important to know that we are doing the work you trust us with and most importantly, that you feel like a “part” of the entire Project i.e. Project Nanhi Kali.

We urge you to join hands in support of Project Nanhi Kali. Just imagine for a sum as little as US $65 , you can help support a Nanhi Kali's education for an entire year! Thats just over $5 per month! Would you miss it? Or would you rather see your Nanhi Kali break into smiles as she learns how to read and write.

For more on 'GIRL SMILES' please visit our www.nanhikali.org
If you wish to contribute to this blog, email us your posts at support@nanhikali.org