The Facts
Gender
Women in India have fewer opportunities to receive higher education
Daughters of Destiny, a Netflix documentary that follows five young girls through their educational journey in India at the Shanti Bhavan school. Shanti Bhavan’s mission is similar to that of Young Girls India.
“Daughters of Destiny portrays how the school is a microcosm of the different cultural clashes happening within India– the triumphs and challenges of S.B. students on the road to college or as they enter the workforce.”
This documentary portrays the increased obstacles that young girls face on their path to higher education. With the added hurdle of low socioeconomic status, receiving an education in India can be challenging. Both the Shanti Bhavan school portrayed in Daughters of Destiny as well as Young Girls India are working to overcome the hardships that young women in India experience.
To read more about the Daughters of Destiny documentary, click here.
Socioeconomic Status
Access to higher education is diminished for those with low socioeconomic status
M. Gail Hickey and Mary Stratton question why gender plays a role in educational success in India in their article “Schooling in India: Effects of Gender and Caste”. An estimate written within this report presents the problem at hand in an explicit and direct manner: “The most recent literacy estimate (2003) 59.5 percent, or 70.2 percent for males and 48.3 percent for females [in India]” (Hickey, Stratton, pg. 59).
The research question of these scholars attempts to answer how gender affects education level in India. The findings and analysis found in this article provides an extensive and detailed background as to why Young Girls India exists and why our mission is so important for female empowerment and success across the globe.
To learn more about the effect of gender and socioeconomic status in India on education, click here for the full article.
Summary
Females in India find themselves at a disadvantage with regard to education. Women are less likely to receive a higher level of education than men. When the factor of socioeconomic status is added into the equation, women of low status are even less likely to receive a higher level of education. The mission of Young Girls India is to assist these seven young girls in overcoming the obstacles presented by both gender and socioeconomic status in order to achieve a quality education that defies the current statistics.