Learning in the round

A NEW GIRLS’ SCHOOL AND CO- OPERATIVE IN THE DESERT OF RAJASTHAN IS BOOSTING EQUALITY FOR SOME OF INDIA’S POOREST WOMEN

Almost half of all girls and women aged over five in Rajasthan, north-west India, have never had any formal education, and the region has India’s lowest female literacy rate – 53%. But a new school for girls built in the desert of Jaisalmer has opened to turn the tide.

Built by Citta, a non-profit organisation which works with marginalised communities around the world, and designed by architect Diana Kellogg, the Rajkumari Ratnavati Girls’ School will also be a women’s co-operative. While students at the school will learn the mainstream curriculum, their mothers and aunties can also be trained in crafts such as weaving by local female artisans. Families are reassured by the girls’ proximity to adults they know and, with a minibus to collect girls from remote villages and a midday meal programme to ease the burden on families, there’s plenty of incentive for those who are the poorest in the region to release their daughters to study. Giving the school an economic purpose has also helped overcome one of the biggest obstacles to getting girls into school – namely, that they’re not seen as breadwinners or workers. And by empowering local women with skills and a means of independent earning, too, the benefits come full circle.