Education in India

A special place in our history and our hearts

Surrounded by mountains and bodies of water, India is one of the oldest civilizations and home to over 1.3 billion people (World Bank, 2020). It was led to independence from Britain by Mahatma Gandhi in 1947, one year before he was assassinated. To this day, India remains the world’s largest democracy.

It also holds special meaning for our WE Villages team because our story began here. It was on a trip through South Asia in 1995 that Craig Kielburger witnessed firsthand the working conditions of child laborers.

We began working in India in 1998, not long after Craig’s first trip to the area. Initially, our programming was built around supporting former child laborers to obtain education and opportunity. Over time, this developed into holistic community development through our five-pillar development model, focused on helping families send their children to school. We began concentrating our efforts in the northwestern province of Rajasthan, in the districts of Udaipur and Rajsamand. The marginalized populations residing in this province include the Scheduled Tribes (Indigenous), the Scheduled Caste (Dalits) and the Other Backward Classes (Diaspora community) and have largely been excluded from government spending and development over the years. Young girls are especially prone to discrimination as they receive lower wages for work, have fewer opportunities and are often given less food than their fathers and brothers.

By establishing partnerships with the local government, school principals and local community leaders, WE charity has implemented community-led, holistic, and sustainable programming across our five-pillar development model. This holistic model starts with education, usually building or renovating schools or school rooms (including classrooms, libraries, kitchens, teachers’ accommodations, and school offices), that are then supported by other infrastructure needs key to breaking the cycle of poverty, from clean water to improved health care. Education projects in India have also facilitated the unification of children in the classroom from the social stratifications of India’s caste system.

How we implement the education pillar

In rural areas of Rajasthan, the incidence of child labour is high, keeping many children out of school. Gender inequality is also a major barrier to education in this region. The literacy rate of women is significantly lower than that of men, and there is a lack of support for young girls to attend school, for reasons including domestic obligations, limited family finances, and a lack of value placed on women’s education.

Together with communities and in partnership with India’s Ministry of Education, WE Charity has supported building and renovating education infrastructure, curriculum, and school programming. A big focus is community education and working to understand the different reasons parents are not sending their children to school. Many do not see its value, instead taking their children with them to work every day to earn additional wages. For others, the cost of education is a barrier.

We work with parents and community elders to share critical information on the schools built and renovated in our partner communities, letting them know that they are free for children to attend, are staffed by teachers provided by the government, and include facilities like separate toilets for girls and boys. We also work with communities to build an understanding of the value of education, especially for girls. Higher rates of literacy are directly linked with lower rates of communicable disease, higher rates of community participation, and greater levels of self-esteem. By empowering young women with reading, writing and other basic skills, they are better placed to negotiate fair prices for their crops brought to market, more likely to understand the benefits of sanitation and hygiene programs and therefore reduce the spread of disease, and more likely to send their own children to school.

Our programming also includes sports and games, which improves student health, increases student motivation, and helps reduce gender disparity. We have also distributed supplies to students such as school uniforms, shoes, earmuffs, and scarves. As well, we have provided bicycles to students, helping encourage them to come to class by reducing their travel time to school.