BackTransformation through education
The transformative power of education is unparalleled and clearly its impact can be seen in the villages and districts
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I want to be Mayawati... Opinions and judgements aside, let us for a moment try to understand what this means to an underprivileged, rural, adolescent girl from Uttar Pradesh (UP). Mayawati, a woman and that too from the lowest caste, stunned the nation when she emerged as the leader of the largest state in India. She is an inspiration and many girls, not just from UP but also elsewhere in India, would aspire to reach that pinnacle.
In 2009, the Shiv Nadar Foundation established the first VidyaGyan that is envisioned as a leadership academy. Annually we conduct a rigorous selection and testing process to induct the brightest and most meritorious, underprivileged children from rural UP. VidyaGyan is a co-ed residential school for all students as well as faculty. Our children are admitted in Class VI, between the ages of 10 and 12, and are provided education on a par with the best schools in India, completely free. All our children are from families with annual incomes of ₹ 1 lakh or less and most parents are farmers.
With a population of 200 million, UP exceeds the size of many nations. According to the 2013 ASER (Annual Status of Education Report), 9.4% girls in the age group 11-14 in UP do not go to school, which increases to 22.8% in the 15-16 age group. Sadly, there seems to be no real desire to send the adolescent girl child to school. In addition, the absence of appropriate infrastructure in public education is not quite conducive to meet the changing needs of adolescent girls in this country. Interestingly, both our VidyaGyan schools reflect a very healthy gender balance with 40% of our students being girls—something that has come as a natural outcome of the selection process—only proving yet again the potential of girls on a level-playing field. Credit also goes to our VidyaGyan parents, although poor, they are progressive and allowed their daughters to continue their education, appear for the admission tests and finally move away to live in a boarding school, hundreds of kilometres away.
Why a co-ed? Why not just for girls? We believe our girls have to survive and thrive in a world with men. The girls and boys at our school typically come from social backgrounds where there is little dispute on gender inequality. Hence, they must learn to respect, work and grow together. Such values are best instilled from a much younger, adolescent stage.
Sakshi is now in Class X, but her journey from a remote district of UP to VidyaGyan was an extremely tough one. Her parents were discouraged from sending her, but her father persevered despite opposition from village elders. Today she is an inspiration to other girls in her village and has made her community proud. Those same elders now encourage others to invest in their girls’ education even if they don’t qualify for the VidyaGyan schools.
There are many Sakshis at VidyaGyan and new ones that join us every year; and it’s heartening to see the beautiful camaraderie, respect and healthy competitiveness that has emerged among the adolescents of both genders.
The annual sports day is one such event that not only unites the school, but also brings out the pride and enthusiasm with which the boys encourage the girl athletes from their respective houses.
Adolescent girls from rural India, given the same if not better platform as their urban counterparts, are destined to shine. Manvi is another VidyaGyan student from Class X; she is on the last leg of selection for the globally conducted Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study programme that is funded through the US department of state and sponsored by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. This amazing opportunity provides scholarships for high school students to spend up to one academic year in the US. Students live with host families, attend high school, engage in activities to learn about American society and values, acquire leadership skills, and help educate Americans about their countries and cultures. Manvi is a first generation learner in her family; her parents are illiterate, but we laud them for their faith in their daughter. She will probably be the Sunita Williams of her village, after all a visit to the US seems as far as space!
The transformative power of education is unparalleled and clearly we are seeing its impact on the villages and districts our children come from. The girls from our first three batches entered VidyaGyan with mostly one inspirational figure who was part of their daily lives, their chief minister, Mayawati. Bureaucrats and politicians, district magistrates, basic shiksha adhikaris, village pradhans, these are the most common career paths they are exposed to, hence administrative services continues to be an aspiration. At VidyaGyan, we want to encourage such aspirations; the impact our young girls will make in UP and India in the leadership positions they will assume in the future will be significant. Our senior-most class at VidyaGyan is Class X and we still have another two years before our first batch graduates, but our initiative is a leap of faith.
What do 28 ambassadors, nine generals, Vikram Seth, Karan Thapar, Abhinav Bindra, Anish Kapoor, Roshan Seth and Rajiv Gandhi have in common? What do Deepa Mehta, Brinda Karat, Tavleen Singh, Advaita Kala and Laila Tyabji have in common? They all went to the same school, the former to Doon and the latter to Welhams Girls. And many more famous alumni from elite schools represent our country in leadership roles globally. This is again to emphasize the power of great education in the formative adolescent years of a child.
Our own vision for VidyaGyan—to find and nurture future leaders from rural UP armed with a great education, rooted in values and ethics.
I truly believe, not just our boys, but our girls too will emerge successful as doctors, engineers, artists, bureaucrats, entrepreneurs and sportswomen, and pursue many new careers which we don’t even know of. We have to invest in all our youth, specifically on the education of adolescent girls from rural India—who knows, maybe in my lifetime, one of our VidyaGyan girls will be the future prime minister of our great nation.
Roshni Nadar Malhotra is executive director and chief executive officer of HCL Corp., director HCL Technologies, and trustee, Shiv Nadar Foundation.
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