It is estimated that girls average less than four years of education in a lifetime and 40% leave school before they reach the fifth grade. There are around 7 million girls who are out of school in India.

Unfortunately, the concerning state of girls’ education stems from a host of interrelated factors that reduce access to, and retention in, schools. As for social cultural factors, little to no value is attached to girls’ education in rural communities. Parents do not see the value of educating their daughters beyond a certain level and even worse, subject their daughters to child labor and/or child marriage.

Rural communities are often completely unaware of the benefit, or even concept, of educating girls. This directly correlates to drop-out rates for rural girls – for every 100 rural school girls, only 1 reaches Class 12. With only 55% of schools in India having girls’ toilets and only 42% of teachers being female 2, enrolling marginalized girls poses an immense challenge.