Handicraft material for the training of a young woman in India

“We want to continue going to school!”

Education program for young women in India

"When I was ten or eleven years old, my mother said: From next week we need your help around the house," says Vaishili from Kurnool. That was a shock. Because that meant that she would no longer be able to go to school and meet her friends. Fortunately, Ms. Faizunnisa was able to convince Vaishili's parents of the importance of education. Today she attends the girls' school at SFTTC, the SF Tailoring Training Centre, and will soon graduate. She is particularly proud of her trained profession as a henna painter. She has already had the opportunity to demonstrate her skills: she was paid 1,000 rupees for a traditional wedding henna - ten times the current Indian minimum daily wage. When asked who wants to continue going to school, all the students raise their hands. Even the mothers present.

need

Education for Muslim girls in India

activity

Girls are taught at the SFTTC center and receive a school diploma and training as basket weavers, seamstresses or henna painters

Measurable performance

Number of young women who have learned to read, write and arithmetic and who have also completed vocational training

Result

Number of young women who can earn their own income

Systemically relevant impact

School graduates and mothers form a network so that other girls, such as sisters, neighbors and cousins, benefit from the positive experiences of the training. The number of school dropouts is decreasing. The number of girls marrying young is decreasing.

background

After the Indian subcontinent was divided into two independent states in 1947, a large part of the Muslim population emigrated from India to Pakistan. The Muslims who remained behind could not usually afford the long journey to Pakistan. They were too poor.
These approximately 160 million Muslims now make up 13.4% of the Indian population, making them the largest religious minority in predominantly Hindu India. For example, the Kurnool district in the state of Andhra Pradesh was predominantly Muslim before partition. After the founding of Pakistan, they became a minority and now mostly live in slums on the fringes of society. In socioeconomic terms, Muslims are at the bottom of society throughout India. Their illiteracy rate is also far above the national average. A quarter of Muslim children between the ages of six and fourteen have either never attended school or have dropped out (Sachar Committee Report, 2006).
Girls in particular suffer from poverty. They are generally not valued very much in India. Since they move into their husband's family after marriage, parents often see no need to invest in their daughters' education. In the Muslim minority society, girls - if they attend school at all - are often taken out of school when they reach puberty. They are married early to relieve their families of financial burdens. Inexperienced girls and those who marry young have it particularly hard. They are often mistreated and exploited by their husbands and their families.

The good deed

Many Muslim families do not see the need for their daughters to be educated or simply cannot afford it. The girls' school at the SFTTC Center is free. All materials are provided to the students free of charge. With today's good deed, a student will receive the materials she needs for her training as a seamstress, basket weaver or henna painter for a whole month. These include school books, but also fabrics, paints, yarn and much more. Everything the girls make as part of their training at the SSFTC Center can be sold. This way they learn to manage their own economy and at the same time earn a small additional income. The latter is an important argument in convincing parents to let their daughters go to school.

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