Incredible women can be found everywhere, even in a small village outside of Lucknow. Kanta runs a nonprofit that teaches young women (ages ~14-16) the local Lucknow embroidery (chikan). Girls get paid for their four hours of work everyday, and Kanta has also adopted DSH to incorporate teaching into their time. (Kanta also independently runs an evening DSH / education program for the other village children.)
20 girls (+ DSH equipment + a small chair / table) sit on the floor in a very small room about the size of a soccer goal (if that) to learn math, English, and/or science every day. They have no books, no writing materials; they just have DVDs, a great attitude, and an amazing, caring teacher.
What’s particularly sad is that most of the girls will be married off within the year, after which they will be mainly confined to their homes and limited to the wishes of her husband. (Of the ~20 girls from last year, only 4 remain and are repeating last year’s lessons because the majority of the ‘class’ are new.) A small subset of children who are wed particularly young (around 9-10) will stay with their families until they’re old enough to leave the village.
This particular situation is particularly frustrating because it means that they only get a year’s worth of education before they leave. How can you keep these young women to continue their education, whether with Kanta or elsewhere? How can you fight the institution of marriage and the existing culture?
And, the more disturbing question: What is the value and importance of education when these folks never leave (or aspire to leave) the village, and learning things like reading and writing are secondary to understanding of farming crops and techniques?
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I think education needs to be marketed as an important asset to help them in farming crops. Reading and writing skills can be crucial to understanding newer techniques in farming.
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