Geetha Murali with girls in the Room To Read program in Mumbai.

Global project aims to reach 13 million children in India by 2024

In a remote village of Rajasthan, a state where more than half of its 32.9 million females are unable to read or write and primary school too far fetched, Madhu longed to study but no one in her family, including her brother, had been allowed to finish school. A girls' education program brought her close to 'Aruna didi', a social mobiliser who tried to reason with her family even as her father forewarned: "A girl who will eventually stay at home, has no need for higher studies." With time they relented and a decade on, Madhu is now the first in her family to have graduated and flaunts a Master's degree. Married on her own terms, today she helps girls across schools to forge their own path like she did. What played a key role in her turnaround was the Room to Read program she enrolled in at 13.

Room to Read was founded in 2000 with the aim of transforming the lives of children in low-income communities through providing books. Over the last 20 years, the organization has grown operations across Asia and Africa and focuses on two critical time periods in children’s schooling: early primary school for literacy acquisition and secondary school for girls’ education. "After Nepal and Vietnam, India was our third country of operations and is the largest by far. We've been operating across 11 states, and have about 600 staff members working for the welfare of children" explained Geetha Murali, CEO of Room to Read, in town earlier this month to meet girls in the education program in Maharashtra. "Our work in this state has been focused on early grade literacy, establishing libraries and providing books. Now we've added girls' education. Our target is to reach 13 million children in India by 2024, depending on government partnerships and resources," said Murali.

Born and raised between the US and Tamil Nadu, Murali's belief in the empowering force of education stems from her own family. "My mother, the eldest among seven siblings finished high school at 13. But she was pressured to get married instead of going to college. Resenting it, she went on to train as a nurse in the Indian Army and travelled to the United States on a nursing visa. There she put herself through school, got a doctorate, joined the pharmaceutical industry and invested back in her sisters' education. All of them have now worked in sectors ranging from healthcare to the UN," she recounted. "My mother's decision changed the destiny of our family and gave me the power to do this work."

Besides opening doors of literacy for girls (and boys), the non-profit stakes its programming with girls on the notion that academic support can only get one so far without basic life skills. Pointing at how most girls in the early stages of the program weren't able to say what their preferences were even when asked simple questions such as what they like to eat, Murali said: "The curriculum starts with the very basics of how to think things through and identify their likes and wants," A series of role playing exercises help the girls with negotiation skills and actual words to use, if for instance, they were pushed to drop out of school or get married.

The project has already helped 4.8 million children in India. A two-year study that concluded this March funded by the US Department of Labor and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation on 2,400 female students in Rajasthan - half of whom participated in Room to Read's program found that girls in the program exhibited a 25% lower dropout rate, an increase in grades and their ability to confront problems, make decisions and express what they wanted to do with their lives.

