Creating Women Leaders for Tomorrow
New Delhi, As
many as 100 girls were inducted into Udayan Care’s Shalini Fellowship Programme
(USF) today at an induction ceremony at Mahavir Senior Model School, New Delhi.
Over the last 12 years, Udayan Care has raised 1012 young girls as Shalini – Dignified Women.
In addition to Delhi, this
year Udayan Care will select over 495 young girls in 9 cities of India –
Gurgaon, Phagwara, Haridwar, Jaipur, Dehradun, Kurukshetra, Aurangabad and
Kolkata. This entails a total commitment of Rs.4.95 crores for the next 5 – 6
years, for their senior secondary and under graduate studies.
According to the Census figures, 16%
women in India study up to Class X and
only 4.5% women in India are
graduates. While 23% girls in
urban India clear Class X, only 8.7% girls in urban India are able to
successfully complete graduation. While
initiatives are being taken towards improving primary and secondary education,
very little is being done to enable girls achieve higher education in India.
“Udayan
Shalini Fellowships (USF) is an academic excellence and personality development
programme for deserving and talented girls from weak socio-economic background aiming
to turn them into empowered and dignified women or Shalinis. Its uniqueness
lies in the fact that it goes beyond being a usual scholarship programme by not
only supporting higher education but also providing regular mentoring and
leadership development and inculcating a sense of social responsibility among
the young girls,” says Dr. Kiran Modi,
Founder and Managing Trustee, Udayan Care.
Girls who have completed Class
X are selected from government schools, through an indigenously developed
selection criteria, called NAT: Needs, Ambition, Talent. The 3 month long
process includes visiting the government schools, getting application forms,
conducting a written test, interviews and finally visiting the girls at their
home to gauge the family situation.
Some of the unique features of the programme include Mentoring (Senior
educationists are voluntarily attached to these girls, who counsel them and
enlarge their world vision) and regular Motivational Workshops to create a
force of sensitive, trained and enlightened citizens out of these girls. In
addition to this, these girls are made socially aware as well as socially
responsible as they have to fulfill 50 hours of mandatory social work.
From supporting just 72 girls in 2002 in Delhi, the USF programme in the
last 12 years of its running has impacted over
3500 girls. There are
more than 130 mentors including alumnae fellows. Many of the Fellows have pursued
careers in Engineers, Doctors, CAs, Scientists, teachers besides other
professional courses and have joined companies like RBS, Genpact, Hewitt, LG
etc, while others are in different
sectors. Some of them have become home makers. Existing ones are pursuing degrees
in the field of commerce, medical, engineering, teaching etc. from prestigious
institutes.
Based on the
success and tremendous response to the programme and with systems and processes
clearly outlined, Udayan Care now plans to reach out to at least 2 new cities
with Fellowships reaching out to a total of
5600 Fellows or Shalinis by 2017.
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