You Matter Campaign “Net enrolment ratio for girl children dips from 88.7% at primary to 51.93% at secondary and to a dismal 32.6% at higher secondary levels. Roughly one in every five girls enrolled drop out after class 8” according to Ministry of Human resource development. These numbers illustrate the dire condition in India. For most of us, we are to busy in our daily lives to make any efforts. Therefore, You Matter campaign has taken the initiative to help you make a change by just taking out a minute from your busy life and contributing money to the largest NGO in India called Pratham. The NGO’s mission is to have every child in school and learning well. Rather than build schools, Pratham innovates low-cost solutions to address gaps in the education system and works in collaboration with India’s governments, communities, educators and industry to improve learning outcomes for millions of children each year. Pratham assists girls 14 and older in completing their secondary school education and earning their 10th Standard diploma. The program, called Second Chance, has impacted the lives of more than 18,000 girls and women, with pass percentages for enrollees reaching 88% in the 2015-16 school year. Pratham assists girls 14 and older in completing their secondary school education and earning their 10th Standard diploma. The program, called Second Chance, has impacted the lives of more than 18,000 girls and women, with pass percentages for enrollees reaching 88% in the 2015-16 school year. Learn more at www.prathamusa.org. After moving to US, I realised that I needed to make a change in my country. I have never heard of instances in US where girls were asked to stay back to help their mothers or do some other chores. There is no difference between girls’ education and boys’ education. However, in many rural places ,in India, there seems to be a huge gap between girls’ education and boys’ education. Why do girls always have to stay back and help their mothers? The mentality that girls’ education is not important has to be changed. I came to this realisation only when I went to my Grandmother’s village in UP. I met my cousin sister and asked about her school. She said that she went to her school twice every week and this was same for all other girls in that village. Whereas, my cousin brother went to school every day because ,unlike my sister, he didn’t have to stay back and help my aunt. I met five friends of my cousin sister and out of five, three of them were going to stop going to school after eighth grade because education is too expensive and their family would rather spend money on their sons. Unfortunately, this is the sad truth about our country. Gender inequality has always been prevalent in our society. For those of us who are privileged, don’t understand the feeling of being held back due to financial issues. Neither has anyone experienced sexism such explicitly. We should be grateful for being in such a good position and use our privileges to help those in need. You matter campaign strives to help girls in rural areas continue their education. Do your bit by contributing whatever you feel is necessary to make those girls believe that they matter and so does their education.
