Awareness Generation on Girl’s Education
In the month of July, 1999, the CUTS Centre for Human Development, Chittorgarh, Rajasthan organised a campaign for generating awareness on girl’s education. It focussed on raising enrolment of girl students in village schools and how to ensure sustainability in their studies.
Parents were encouraged to send their daughters to schools through a series of activities in different villages covered under the Rural Women’s Empowerment Programme–III. These include village level advocacy meetings, wall writing, educational campaigns, cultural programmes and public relations with parents and teachers.
As a result of the programme, there was 30 to 50 percent increase in girl’s enrolment in primary schools in targeted villages. Joint parent-teacher committees were formed for ensuring sustainability of the effects of these activities, and also to reduce teachers’ absenteeism in village schools.
In one of the village called Kiro ka Kheda under Hathiyana Gram Panchayat (village council) of Kapasan block, the impact of the activities was so effective that the government has started a primary school and out of 84 students, 42 are girls. This was possible because of the efforts of Smt. Ratni Bai, one of the Animator of the project, who in association with the village level self-help group took up the issue of girls’ education with the district authority. The result is: each girl (in the age group of 6-12) of this village are enrolled for primary education.