As India celebrates its 68th Independence Day on Friday, we remain mindful that for millions of people across the country, independence is a dream yet to be realised. In particular, many of our country’s women and girls remain marginalised, discriminated against and dependent for life – a process that starts in childhood where education in poorer families is seen as a luxury that can only be afforded for boys, if at all.
Beyond the obvious and most important issue of equality, there are of course many, many reasons why education for girls is vitally important – for individuals, families and for society as a whole. Not only is education a human right, but research shows that when a girl stays in school her risk of child marriage decreases and her risk of dying during pregnancy or childbirth is significantly reduced as well (more benefits on this great infographic).
What’s more, women and girls spend 90% of their earned income on their family (versus 30-40% for men), and educating girls is also fundamental to a nation’s economic prosperity and development as well: when 10% more girls stay in school a country’s GDP increases by an average of 3%, while eliminating barriers to employment for women (education being perhaps the best way to do this) can result in a 25% increase in labour productivity (another great infographic!).
For all these reasons and more, this Independence Day, LetzChange launches a new campaign in partnership with Deepalaya with the aim of helping underprivileged girls from slum communities achieve independence through education.
From the 13-15 August, we’re cashing in your Facebook likes and shares and your Twitter retweets and mentions for donations towards Deepalaya’s project “Help to empower and educate a poor slum-girl.” All you have to do is #ClickToCare by liking, sharing and re-tweeting LetzChange Independence Day posts on social media, and we will donate to Deepalaya on your behalf – Simple Social Giving!
Click through to Facebook and Twitter now and let’s help bring independence to as many underprivileged girls as possible!
*Full instructions and terms & conditions can be found here.
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