Meet Meena, a twelve-year-old girl from Rae Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh. Meena lives with a large family of ten and is the second oldest child in the family. At an age when she should be carefree, working towards her dreams and attending a school like other children her age, she is living a nightmare existence. She has been pulled out of school to take care of her seven young siblings and perform household chores. Her father is a ‘sapera’ (a snake charmer) who travels to Lucknow (the nearest metropolitan, almost 3 hours away) to earn a living. His work forces him to stay away from home for long durations. With his wife expecting his 9th child and the eldest daughter already married as soon as she turned 16, Meena is the only family member responsible for taking care of her young siblings and the housework.
But this isn't the only reason for keeping Meena out of school. Meena belongs to a "low caste community" and faced routine discrimination at school, a reality many children from her community face in schools every day. Moreover, she wasn’t enrolled in age-appropriate classes for years. Teachers seemed disinterested in teaching her, eventually, she dropped out of school.
Lakhs of girls like Meena drop out of school because their parents and teachers believe that education is not necessary for girls, pushing them into household work or early marriage.
We at Oxfam India are working to change this and helping send girls back to school. We believe that girls must be educated to break the endless cycle of poverty for their families and live with dignity. We were able to send 11,000 boys and 12,044 girls to school in 2017.
It is time we start educating our girls. With your support we can send Meena and other girls like her back to school, so they can study and play and live their childhood to the fullest.
READ HOW OXFAM INDIA TOUCHED LIVES IN 2018
* name changed to protect identity
We work to achieve the goal of universal, inclusive and quality elementary education.
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