Leela's Story

When you educate a girl, you educate a family. When you educate a family, you educate a nation. Despite this, millions of girls worldwide are denied this basic human right: In India, where poverty is still widespread, fewer than 2 out of 5 women can read or write and 40 percent of girls under the age of 14 do not go to school. They are expected to drop their studies to prepare for marriage, help with household chores and work in the fields. Leela is an exception.

Leela is a bubbly 11 year old with an infectious laugh. She lives with her mother, grandmother, and two siblings, in a one room home in a densly populated slum in northern Mumbai where public facilities are scarce and open sewers abound.

Despite their poverty, Leela’s mother recognizes the importance of an education and works very hard, sometimes skipping meals, to send Leela to one of the best government aided private girls schools in Mumbai. “I don’t want my children to have a life like mine,” says Leela’s mother. “I want them to study, be independent, make something of themselves.”

Leela loves going to school. In the classroom, she is the first one to raise her hand. She dreams of becoming a teacher. She sometimes gives lessons to children from her neighbourhood who do not go to school. “I like to teach little kids…I teach them A, B, C, D.” At school, uniforms help the girls see past surface differences. Everyone, Hindu or Muslim, rich or poor, is equal.

Leela’s teacher stresses the value of education for girls, “Once you have an education,” she tells her pupils, “you’ll stand on your own feet.” Leela takes this message to heart and is determined to make her dream come true. She cites Indira Ghandi as a role model.

How you can help?
Education is instrumental in attaining peace, security and sustainable development. Yet, many children in developing countries are denied an education. The majority of these are girls.

Begin by learning more about what United Nations agencies such as UNICEF, UNESCO, UNDP, UNFPA and the World Bank along with international and local organizations such as Save the Children and Girls Global Education Fund are doing through partnerships such as Education for All and campaigns such as 25 by 2005 and Go Girls! to give girls an education.