Dehradun, Participants from different stakeholders working in girl education and gender equality took part in an event at the State level Consultation, organized by Room to Read, to dwell into challenges of Girl Education. Education Department, SCERT, DIET, Skill and Employment; participation from NGOs RLEK, SAMPARK, Kaaya, Maiti, Samadhan along with prominent personalities like Padam Shri Avadesh Kaushal, Hemlata Behan, Kalyan Singh Rawat; students and fellows from TISS and HANS, were part of the consultation.
Student who had graduated from Room to Read program shared their experience, their journey and spoke about the hurdles faced while completing their elementary education and how life-skills learnt as part of the program helped them in overcoming life challenges.
Key speakers, Ms Asha Painuly, CEO, Dehradun and Ms Nini Mehrotra Sr. Prog. Manager Girl Education and Gender Equality Program from Room to Read, shed light on data collected from last three decades on how the Indian Education System and successive government policies have made steady progress towards bridging gender and social gap, yet a lot remained to be achieved.
Ms Arushi Pokhriyal joined the event and talked about the achievement of women leadership of Uttarakhand which has been recognized world over. She reinforced that girls need to be self-aware of their potential to reach their dream.
Panel members shared their experiences on efforts being put in the field of gender equality and girl education. The session brought forth the need to mainstream life-skill education. The panel highlighted financial, attitude and practices, crisis situation, policy and system level barriers, health, protection, gender discrimination, socio cultural barriers etc all relevant areas that could create hindrance for girls in completing her education and yet how she could march forward towards attaining gender equality.
