Every Last Girl: How a grassroots push brought 2 million back to school

From a handful of team members to thousands of full-time employees, how a grassroots movement has brought over 2 million girls in rural India back to school

Every Last Girl: A Journey to Educate India's Forgotten Daughters

by Safeena Husain

Published by HarperCollins

234 pages  ₹499

  India is one of the largest contributors to the global number of out-of-school girls. The reasons for this range from poverty to patriarchy, early marriage and rigid social norms. “Antimbala” is the symbolic “last girl”, who represents those farthest from opportunity and the first to be denied it. “The only true reason to educate a girl is that it is her right,” writes Safeena Husain, who has worked extensively with rural and urban underserved communities in South America, Africa and Asia.

 

Ms Husain grew up around hardship, poverty, violence and abuse. One of the reasons why she was strongly motivated to set right this wrong is the fact that her own education was interrupted for three years in her childhood. At that time, she felt voiceless, trapped, and helpless. However, she was lucky that a family friend stepped in to support her. Ms Husain ended up studying at the London School of Economics, becoming the first in her family to go overseas for education. Her renewed education trajectory changed her life. From being a useless daughter, she became a smart young woman. People around her saw her differently, and most importantly, she saw her own self differently. “I hated myself a little less, held my head a little higher, began to find my voice and confidence,” she recalls.

 

In 2007, Ms Husain launched her initiative, along with a team of passionate individuals, in some pockets of Rajasthan. Over the years, it grew from a handful of team members to thousands of full-time employees and tens of thousands of village-based gender champions — a grassroots movement, which in partnership with communities and state governments, spans more than 30,000 villages across four states and has mobilised over two million girls to return to learning. The book traces this remarkable journey of Educate Girls, her award-winning organisation reshaping access to education in rural India. Last year, it became the first Indian organisation to win the Ramon Magsaysay Award.

 

Ms Husain believes that free, quality education is a true equaliser and a protected right; and when that right is not enabled, a whole country can be held back. According to her, education is the key to the empowerment and growth of individuals, societies, nations and to the health of the planet. It can be the window to the world so that one can stand up for oneself and avoid exploitation. “Quality education, combined with an aspirational mindset, has the power to change the trajectory of an individual and a family within a generation,” writes Ms Husain. Despite this, ironically, 133 million girls globally still remain out of school.

 

“Behind every illiterate woman is a girl who was not allowed to go to school,” explains Ms Husain. When the author travelled to remote villages, she was appalled to learn that many people had given their daughters names whose meanings translated to “useless” or “unwanted.” “From the day these little girls enter the world, they are considered a burden,” writes Ms Husain. Many families even felt that a goat is an asset, while a girl is a liability. This mindset keeps them out of school, denies them an education and sets them on a path that leads to marriage and motherhood. “Your vulnerability is the highest when you are an out-of-school girl because you exist on the deepest margins of caste, class and gender,” writes Ms Husain.

 

Through first-hand experiences and vivid stories, the author recounts how Educate Girls made a difference. Educate Girls’ network of local volunteers set out to identify out-of-school girls and tracked their progress. In a world historically designed by and for men, Educate Girls designs for the very last girl, but in doing so, design for all. “Our firm belief is that when you design for the most marginalised girl, you benefit all boys and girls, by unleashing the curb-cut effect,” she explains in the book’s Preface.

 

Ms Husain realised the power of storytelling in connecting people, challenging mindsets and changing minds. Further, she learnt the importance of local role models, real-life examples and influencers in driving a mindset change. “Behavioural change comes from that emotional connection, from the ability to see oneself in the storyteller and one’s life reflected in the story,” writes Ms Husain.

 

While the book is about the problem of girls’ education, it is also about its potential. It is about how gender champions are coming forward from the most remote villages. “How slowly but surely mindsets and behaviours are shifting, and a movement is being created that will stop at nothing to fight for girls’ rights,” Ms Husain writes, adding that Educate Girls’ goal now is to change the lives of 10 million more learners in the next ten years.

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The reviewer is a New Delhi-based freelance writer