In recognition of her relentless endeavour to reduce the dropout rates among the school-going girls, the acting chief education officer of Haridwar district Pushpa Rani will soon be awarded by the Union ministry of human resource development.
She said she was prodded to take the initiative after observing a marked increase in the number of girl dropouts, particularly among the minorities. “The minorities and the OBC people constituting 30 percent of the district’s population, I found the Muslim girls being sent to the madrasas for basic education on account of their adherence to the custom of ‘parda’,” she said. She, however, regretted that despite her counseling them for the past few years, the minority people are yet to shed their inhibition regarding sending their daughters to the regular schools.
She further said she had been inspired by the government scheme “Sarkar Apke Dwar”. “The thought of opening centres known as ‘Shalaghars’ in the remote localities struck me. Since the girls were not allowed to go to schools I thought of taking schools to their homes. last year, I started the first Shalaghar in Eikar Khurd village near Pathri area. By May 2016, 90 girls registered. Enthused, I opened the same near Bahadrabad and Shyampur and also at other places , given the availability of resources.”
The girls are receiving basic literacy programmes for six months at these Shalaghars. They are learning crafts, stitching, drafting and other household skills. “Once the spirit of learning is developed in them many go back to the schools to complete their education. After Shalaghars have come up the dropout rate among the minority girls has come down 30 percent to 20.4% in a year,” she said.
Notably, in all the four centres (Shalaghars), 526 girls have registered this year and plans are afoot to open Shalaghars in Bhagwanpur and Shivalik Nahar as well. Pushpa said she had started this as a hobby and had never taken any financial help from a district or a state body. “I used to pay the teachers hired for giving vocational training from my own pocket,” she added.
