How data is focusing efforts to educate girls in India

Good intentions are not enough. In tackling the multitude of challenges faced in developing countries, only with a forensic, disciplined approach can dramatic impacts be achieved with limited resources. And crucially, technology and the facility to collect, analyse and act upon large amounts of data can play a pivotal role in reaching ambitious goals for development and social advancement.

This is the philosophy and approach of Safeena Husain, the founder of Educate Girls an organisation that aims to bring Indian girls back into the classroom. Husain’s work vividly highlights how the use of data and technology can transform the chances of reaching a target with limited resources.

Every day in India, more than 4 million girls aged between seven and fourteen fail to show up at school.

Why? In almost every case, the reason is simply their gender. As Husain puts it, for many families, “it’s rooted very much in a mindset where you believe that a goat is an asset and a girl is a liability.” Too often, sending a girl to school is seen as a waste of time. Even worse, she might develop a mind of her own and start answering back. And if she starts at school then subsequently drops out, then so what?

It is ingrained negative attitudes to girls’ education that Husain argues must be challenged because the benefits can lift the whole community:

• An educated girl is less likely to be married off while still in her childhood,;
• She is likely to earn between 10 percent and 20 percent more than one who is not;
• Educating girls “positively impacts nine of the 17 sustainable development goals,” Husain pointed out. “Climate scientists have recently rated girls’ education as number six of actions to reverse global warming. This is phenomenal because at number six it is rated higher than solar panels and electric cars. You wouldn't think about that intuitively, but as fertility rates go down when girls are educated, that actually reduces carbon emissions significantly.”
• Immunisation rates go up 40 percent if the mother is educated;
• And critically, an educated girl is more than twice as likely to ensure that her children are educated. Educating a girl “is something we just have to do once… So, as long as we make it happen for her, she is going to make sure that the education outcomes are achieved for her own children and for generations to come,” says Husain. “With girls education and investments, we have an opportunity to close the gender and literacy gap today in the world.”