The Udayan Shalini Fellowship Programme has been working for years to help deserving girl students facing difficulties in continuing their education and to improve their performance, in 38 locations across India. A group of volunteer-mentors are guiding the young girls to pursue higher studies and become employment ready, under the programme that offers monetary support too. Bharat Dogra reports about the success achieved in Udaipur and other places in Rajasthan
Talent and a thirst for knowledge are all too often not enough to spur a child – particularly a girl child – to acquire an education and become an achiever. Economic compulsions put paid to the dreams of too many children, who are either forced to discontinue studies or compromise on their progress. The Udayan Shalini Fellowship Program (USFP) has been working for years to help talented girl students facing difficulties in continuing their education and to improve their performance, in 38 locations across India.
USFP is being taken forward by Udayan Care, a Delhi-based voluntary organisation. A recent review of the Udaipur Chapter of the programme brought out several heart-warming achievements made possible by the close involvement of dedicated volunteers and mentors. Udayan Care provides a monthly scholarship to carefully selected girl students of Class XI in several government schools. The two basic criteria are that they must be hard-working and sincere, as reflected in their performance, and that their social or family backgrounds are a serious hurdle to them in either continuing their studies or achieving good results in higher education.
Chandani Mali, the local coordinator of the programme, visits government schools to spread awareness and encourage girl students to apply for it. Volunteers, some of them closely involved with educational work in various capacities, help make a selection on the basis of a written test, interviews and home visits. Visiting homes helps the volunteers not only to identify those who are most in need, but also to establish a rapport with parents so that they too can be convinced of the desirability of their wards continuing their studies.
Most of the selected students belong to ST/SC/OBC/Minority Communities, but some are also from General Category households who face exceptionally difficult circumstances, such as the untimely death of the family’s main breadwinner. The students are given a scholarship of Rs 1,000 per month in Classes XI and XII. The sum goes up a bit during the post-school years, and there is some provision for meeting expenses for special needs, such as professional courses. The economic support continues generally for five years, and emphasis is placed on ensuring that the student is well-equipped for reasonably good employment.
Several volunteers function as mentors and they guide the students in matters such as employment and career choices and the kind of educational courses that would be most helpful for their goals. Sometimes, the mentoring part of the programme is even more helpful to students than the financial support. Veenu Gupta, a former additional chief secretary of Rajasthan, who looks after the Rajasthan Chapters of USFP, says, “There are many scholarship schemes, but what makes this special is the strong mentoring effort which has proved useful for the girls.”
A core committee of volunteers from Udaipur has been created. They, as well as mentors, are active in providing these students opportunities for improving language and public-speaking skills. Some students need help with English. While this pattern is common to most places where USFP is implemented, the Udaipur unit, despite being a relatively young one, has added components such as a special summer vacation educational and skill improvement programme, arranging to support more students through local fundraising efforts.
Conversations with volunteers, core-team members and the local coordinator revealed that they are satisfied with the heartwarming progress of several beneficiaries of the programme, who are continuing their education under very difficult economic conditions. Zuleikha Khatun has excelled in extracurricular activities and public speaking and has demonstrated leadership qualities. Deepti Rajput scored 96 per cent marks in the Class XII Board exams. Gauri Luhar is preparing for the NEET exam. Nazneem Banu, who comes from a poor artisan household, has done well in English Language and in overall academic performance, scoring 92 per cent in the Arts and Humanities Group in the board exam.
Says Veenu Gupta: “Some of the girl students who received this support at another centre in Jaipur are now doing Medicine, Engineering and CA courses.” Though the results of the initiative have been encouraging, some supporters feel that, given the rate of inflation, the scholarship amount should be increased. They also feel that the stress on academic performance and marks secured as selection criteria should be relaxed if teachers are able to recommend some otherwise very promising and sincere candidates.
(The writer is an independent journalist and author who has been writing for over five decades, providing a strong perspective on peace, justice and protection on the environment. He lives in New Delhi.)
from Webdoux