Advocate for Girls’ Leadership programme, implemented in Pali district of Rajasthan, forms Bal Sabhas within government school framework to stimulate girls’ participation in growth and development issues.

 

The patriarchal nature of our society has often worked to relegate girls to the household and to less enterprising roles. They are excluded from family decision-making process and treated as passive subjects. In most developing countries, leadership roles are defined by social roles that are deeply entrenched in culture. In order to bring a change, the Advocate for Girls’ Leadership programme was initiated by Educate Girls (EG) in 2008 in Pali district of Rajasthan.

The programme aims to stimulate girls’ participation in matters related to their growth and development through interactive activities such as informative sessions, peer-to-peer counselling, and life skills training. The initiative is based on the belief that communication, leadership, critical thinking and problem solving skills are critical for giving girls the confidence to speak up in a group. EG, therefore, works to empower girls towards engagement in a rational process to arrive at an opinion and express that opinion to others without fear.

It is known that girls’ education dramatically improves their health, income level and overall livelihoods, thereby bringing about social transformation of rural and tribal societies. It is known fact that a girl’s well-being is critical to progress on a range of developmental outcomes and EG is working towards realizing this goal. A plethora of organisations in India work in the field of girl education but few are as cost-effective and scalable as Educate Girls. EG is determined to influence behavioural change in communities and policy change within government, provide 4 million children with quality education and leadership training.

This case study was published in October 2011.

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