At 14 years old, I had a hard choice: keep going to school or help provide for my family
(Courtesy of Saumya Khandelwal / Malala Fund)
Why I’m asking the government of India to increase the budget for girls’ education.
When I was 14 years old, I had a hard choice to make: keep going to school or help provide for my family by working during school hours. To meet family obligations, I had no choice but to drop out of school. In my village, there is no government school or free education beyond class eight, so most girls end up as child laborers or child brides and face a life of endless exploitation.
Currently, India’s Right to Education (RTE) Act 2009 only guarantees free and compulsory schooling for children up to age 14. Once we turn 14 and complete class eight, our access to education ends. I’m not the only girl this impacts — almost 40% of girls ages 15 to 18 are not in school.
Education is critical to every girl’s future. The only way to make this possible is by ensuring that more money is spent by the government to build secondary schools in every village.
“I almost lost my right to education — and I don’t want to watch any more of my sisters lose theirs.”
Thankfully, after two years out of school, I got a second chance. SKVS is an organization that works to help Dalit and Muslim girls in my community go to school. Social workers from SKVS persuaded my family to let me continue my education and helped enroll me in a private school. But I still struggle to cover my school expenses. I still need to work after school and on weekends to support my family of six. This doesn’t leave me any time to complete my homework.
I started this petition to ask our Union Human Resource Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal and the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to increase the contribution to education from public resources so that all children can receive free education up to the higher secondary level.
If the government spent more than 10% of the union budget on education, there would be a high school in villages like mine. Thousands of girls like me would grow up with skills that can contribute to the development of our nation. I almost lost my right to education — and I don’t want to watch any more of my sisters lose theirs.
Read more
