“I wanted to study but my parents and grandmother did not allow me to study.” -- Sonika

“My brothers used to tell me, ‘don’t cross the limits of the house’. Today I am studying in Class 5.” -- Ruchi

“The schoolteachers never come to school on time and they were not teaching properly, so I came to the centre run by Sarvoday Ashram.” -- Uma

For adolescent girls in Uttar Pradesh’s Hardoi district, realising their dream of becoming educated, productive members of society is an uphill task. The district is among the most backward in the state, routinely featuring at the bottom of the development ranking of districts in Uttar Pradesh.

Female literacy here is extremely low, just 37.62%. Access to education and allied facilities for girls is not due only to lack of educational facilities, deprived sections of the community live in isolated clusters, well beyond the boundaries of villages that may have schools.

The Sarvoday Ashram PACS Programme project fills this crucial gap. In Tadiyawan and Hariyawan blocks of Hardoi district, Sarvoday has initiated 100 adolescent girls groups. The girls are taught literacy skills and trained in crafts, painting, sewing and food preservation techniques such as making pickles and sauces. Importantly, they also learn about the reproductive system.

The girls attend school on bicycles, which is not the custom in this area and is thereby a great achievement for the organisation. They are taught to communicate well and to be neat and tidy in their personal habits. Every six months, the leadership of the group rotates so that everyone gets a chance to develop leadership qualities.

Members of the group take an active part in programmes like local fairs arranged by the Sarvoday Ashram, and doing wall/slogan writing in their villages.

The training programme has shown results. Two girls received Rs 20,000 under the Uttar Pradesh government’s Kanya Vidya Daan scheme.

The groups also work towards the social uplift of their villages in various ways:

• They have encouraged villagers to participate in pulse polio programmes.
• Pregnant women and children below five years of age are encouraged to get vaccinated.
• Parents are advised not to allow their girls to marry until they are 18 years old; at least 80% of families follow this rule.
• Parents are encouraged to send their children to school. In Sagrapur basti, 18 children have been enrolled in school due to the efforts of the group.
• Group members support the anganwadi worker in her day-to-day activities.
• In Agolapur village, group members lobbied the gram pradhan to build a brick road and sewage outlet. They approached Development Minister Anil Verma and demanded sewing machines. They attempted to teach members of the self-help group how to write their names. And they have collected the phone/mobile numbers of every government officer in the district.

The story of Manju of Maharajganj village is illustrative of what has been achieved.

One of nine children, Manju was struck by polio when she was three years old and deprived of sight in one eye due to medicines doled out by a quack.

“As a young girl I went through lots of negative feelings. I felt I was a useless person, I could do nothing. I saw other children running around and playing and I wanted to do the same but could not. I felt that my life depended on the support and care of others and I would always be a burden on them.”

Through sheer will power Manju learnt to walk with the help of a pair of bamboo sticks. But though she went to school, she wasn’t very eager to study. It was at this stage that the Sarvoday Ashram PACS Programme project was initiated in Manju’s village.

Manju became a member of the kishori group and entered the training programme where “they spoke about many things, among them the success stories of various women, which touched me a lot”.

Among the successful women, it was Kiran Bedi who became her ideal. “I felt I could educate and support myself, become a successful woman and bring about some changes among the village girls.”

Today, Manju runs a PCO in her village and pays her own school fees. She has encouraged a number of girls to join the group, holds meetings of group members, teaches them all the things she learnt during her training, and encourages parents to send their daughters to meetings.

“Today the girls are inspired by me and they would like to take part in the training conducted by Sarvoday Ashram,” she says happily.

This report is based on inputs sent by Hilda Ferrao of Global Ideas, PACS Programme resource organisation in UP.