The Pardada Pardadi schools offer free education to girls. But more than that, they are also trying to make a dent in the deeply patriarchal society in Western Uttar Pradesh.
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00:00Thank you, Sun!
00:30I don't know if my daughter will get a boyfriend or not if she studies a lot.
00:56I talk about this in society.
00:59So, I don't encourage girls to study.
01:02If they pass 10th, they can marry any girl.
01:06The challenge is that if there is a girl in the house, who will do the household chores?
01:12If you go to school.
01:29If there is a girl in the house, who will do the household chores?
01:58If there is a girl in the house, who will do the household chores?
02:27If there is a girl in the house, who will do the household chores?
02:32When nobody came and days and weeks gone by, then I tried to go and start talking with the family.
02:42And to my horror, not just surprise, to my horror I found out that nobody wants education.
02:49Everybody has the issue, where is the food coming tonight?
02:53That was the issue number one.
02:56The issue number two was that if they have a girl child, they all are thinking that at age 13 or 14, she is going to get married.
03:06Where is the money, the finances will come for her marriage?
03:10That learning stayed with me and I decided that the road to education, the road to a good job, goes via food, via clothing, and via money for marriage.
03:24And so the school started with that objective.
03:54And so the school started with that objective.
04:25So it is okay for boys to have a mobile phone, it is okay for boys to have technological devices.
04:32But when it comes to girls, there is a huge discrimination.
04:36Parents never provide for these kind of gadgets or mobile phones for the girls.
04:44For the first time, when girls had an access to the tabs, siblings' egos did get hurt.
04:52And they tried to take it away from their sisters.
04:56What is the reason for this discrimination?
05:03Nothing much, sometimes I miss my classes.
05:08When I have to do the household chores, I miss my classes.
05:13I was planning to get married during the lockdown.
05:18But I said that I want to study, I don't want to get married.
05:24Then my mother told me that I don't want to study, I'm 12 years old, that's enough.
05:30When my mother didn't agree, I didn't know what to do.
05:35So I confirmed everything with my school and told them everything.
05:42Then I went to my school teacher, everyone talked to her and she helped me study.
05:52Now I'm a computer engineer.
06:22This work is not just about education of girls, this work is about equality of towards a better
06:34world.
06:35When I was in 10th class, my family asked me to get married and I said, now you can't
06:42get married.
06:43So I took my own step to get married.
06:46My family did not support me at that time, so I moved forward thinking about myself.
06:57Even I am supporting my family last 7 years.
07:01Since I started working, I have been supporting my family and they are happy now.
07:08They think that we have a big girl who handles the whole house.
07:14Education is very important for girls.
07:16If we have education, we can do everything.