Visit to Grade 1-10 Government School near, Bikaner, Rajasthan
Every school visit brings a new surprise. Today I traveled to another village school. The school is grades 1-5, with ~180 students and 4 teachers. I’ll share two short stories from today. The first told from the perspective of mothers and grandparents who belong to a women’s Self Help Group (SHG). The SHG meets monthly, and all members are expected to save 100 rupees each month with they will contribute to the group. As a group they decide to whom they will loan money each month. The second story is from the perspective of the school teachers on the impact of Financial Literacy and Life Skills training on their students. Who better to speak about the changing attitudes towards girls education in the desert villages of Bikaner than their mothers and grandmothers. The women I met today are members of 3 different Self Help Groups. All 11 women are illiterate, but they want their daughters and granddaughters to finish at least grade 12. They told me girls today are more vocal in sharing that they want to study, and the girls are asking not to be married early. “Girls have changed. They are not the ones who they were a few years back, listening to whatever their parents say. They have a voice and they know what they want to become… They have seen the plight of other girls in the village who were married early and are illiterate. Seeing their plight and learning from them the girls are now saying they want to be educated so that they can get a job and be financially empowered. Girls want to earn for themselves and not be dependent on their husband.” I asked what these women think the future will look like 10 years from now for the girls in their village, and one of the women replied “Ten years from now the earth will start shaking. The universe will know that people in India are getting an education.”
Today the headmaster took me to see lunchtime so that he could show me how all the children have embraced the lesson of equality which they’re teaching during the Financial Literacy and Life Skills (FELS) class. Earlier I had asked the teachers at this elementary school what changes they have seen in their students since the creation of the Children’s Club and implementation of FELS curriculum. The teachers shared with me that previously caste discrimination was still a problem they were facing in the school. For example a student might say ‘I will not eat if he or she serves me the food.’ That has now completely stopped. The breakdown of caste discrimination started prior to the FELS course, however with FELS now the message that this is a no discrimination zone is even stronger & the students have taken ownership for ending discrimination amongst themselves. According to the headmaster “The message of equality is strong. You can see that there is no problem now. The children are serving together, eating together. The students are taking this message home and discussing it with their parents… The older community members may not all change their views, however in the community as a whole you can see changes and the children are playing a role.”
Thursday is my final day in the field. I will be en transit Thursday until Saturday morning. I’ll continue posting stories from my trip over the next week as I finish compiling them. The wifi is crawling tonight, so I’ll be posting photographs Thursday and Friday wifi permitting.
Kristin's Global Citizens Assignment - Plan India 