B. R. Ambedkar

Cultivation of Mind should be the

ultimate aim of human existence.

Girl's Education

Even though school enrollment of girls in India has increased from 10.7 to 28.1 million between 2000-2014, girls continue to drop out of school at higher rates than boys!

 

Additionally, there are 102 million child brides who exist in India even today and according to estimates, an additional 10 million adolescent girls will be added to this number globally, because of the COVID-19 pandemic (UNFPA, 2021; UNICEF, 2019).

 

These social outcomes are compounded with each layer of marginalization of gender, class, and caste.

What is a KGBV?

Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya or KGBVs are residential schools specifically designed to provide education to minority girls in India. They are throughout the country in what is known as Educational Backward Blocks.

 

Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV) schools were established by the Indian government in 2004 with the vision of providing access to quality education to girls belonging to underprivileged communities (i.e., from India’s lowest castes namely SC, ST, OBCs, tribal groups, and low socioeconomic status). Educationally Backward Blocks were identified throughout the country as areas with literacy levels below, and male-female literacy gaps above the national average. There are 3,609 residential KGBVs in India where, along with education, girls are provided clothing, food, and school materials (NITI Aayog, 2015). 

 

  • Residential elementary Girls schools (Grade 6+), 28 states

  • Educationally Backward Blocks, 2004

  • Age group , 10-18 years

  • ~450,000 Girls

  • Minority communities, below poverty line families

Our Work

It takes a village to raise a Girl child!

We work with stakeholders responsible for the life outcomes of Girls including Teachers, parents, school leadership, local women role models and government through our village approach. We invest heavily in both;

  1. In-person
  2. Low-cost technology

SwaTaleem uses a participatory system-based approach to influence change at several layers of stakeholders and capacity building areas. Our work maps on to eight SDGs.

Our overall process of working includes addressing a common school-based pedagogy related problem coupled with socio-emotional skills education. The curriculum is co-created with schoolteachers and schools undertake the SwaTaleem journey as a cluster of 4-5 schools.

1.

Choose an educational challenge together

2.

Co-create a curriculum

3.

Classroom activities and share of experiences between schools

1. Choose an educational challenge together
2. Co-create a curriculum
3. Classroom activities and share of experiences between schools

As a result of this process, our work focuses on quality education around English and Socioemotional skills for underrepresented adolescent Girls. 

Girls need a holistic development

RunToFly

Science Gender curriculum

Digital Tablet Lab

Career awareness

Our Programs

Girls Engagement Program

Girls Engagement Program

This program holds in-depth sessions on socio-emotional skills, continuing studies, introducing role models, English and conducting extracurricular sessions for the Girls in a hybrid mode.

Teacher Professional Development Program

Teacher Professional Development Program

This program includes a digital component (online workshops for building emotional and educational capacity) and a field-based component called the cluster sessions.

Parent Engagement Program

Parent Engagement Program

Parents were involved in the education of their daughters by regular contact points through calls on school issues as well as the progress of their daughters.

Women Leaders Program

Women Leaders Program

Social Transformation is catalyzed by recruiting & creating local women as leaders for community work while generating employment opportunities for them.

Government officials Engagement Program

Government officials Engagement Program

By engaging government officials, in the process, SwaTaleem challenges systemic hierarchies by bringing them together with other stakeholders to create opportunities for collaboration and cross-learning.

Our Approach

We use a hybrid approach in our work which is a mix of deep grassroots work coupled with low-cost tech called Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) based engagement. 

We use this to create a cohesive ecosystem of stakeholders to support girl’s education.  

Our Snapshot of work done in 2021!

  • Parents were involved in the education of their daughters by regular contact points through calls on school issues as well as the progress of their daughters.

  • Interactive Voice Response System is to send Educational content in a customized manner mapped on 6 Key areas of curriculum in the form of contextual stories.

  • This program includes a digital component (online workshops for building socio-emotional) and a field-based component called the cluster sessions.

  • Social Transformation is catalyzed by recruiting & creating local women as leaders for community work while generating employment opportunities for them.

  • This program held in-depth sessions on socio-emotional skills, continuing studies, introducing role models and conduct extracurricular sessions for the girls.

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Opening hours

Tue – Thu: 09am – 07pm
Fri – Mon: 09am – 05pm

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