"You can tell the condition of a nation by looking at the status of its women."
-Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru
"Educating girls yields a higher rate of return than any other investment available in the developing world".
-World Bank
About the school
The Shrimati Hoshiari Devi Girls School was founded to provide affordable educational facilities to girls in the village Rathora and its nearby villages in Western Uttar Pradesh (India). Rathora is 80 kilometers northwest of New Delhi on a linkroad, connecting it to Chaprouli in the west, a town 2 miles away, and in the east to Kishanpur Biral, a town 5 miles away. The population of Rathora is approximately 9,000- 80% Hindus and 20% Muslims. The villagers’ livelihood stems primarily from farming and similarly related jobs.
The school is named after Shrimati Hoshiari Devi, who was born in a family of very modest means in Rathora. Though she had no formal education, having never attended school, she valued it greatly. In those days the village folks saw no use for education, especially for girls. The concept of girls going to school simply did not exist. They were born to help their parents in performing household chores until their arranged marriages, where the cycle would perpetuate itself in their in-laws’ homes.
Of Shrimati Hoshiari Devi’s four children, the youngest, born in 1940, received his education in Rathora upto the fourth grade. Then he walked back-and-forth 2 miles to Chaprouli for the next three grades. Not a single girl from Rathora attended school in those days. In the nearly six decades that have passed, the awareness of the need for girls’education in villages has gone up, but facilities do not exist for them to receive even a primary education. Prior to the founding of the Shrimati Hoshiari Devi Girls School, Rathora had nominal facilities for co-education upto the fifth grade. Still, after the fifth grade, children must walk back-and-forth to Chaprouli to continue their education, just as they did in 1950. Parents fear for the well being of their daughters in commuting to Chaprouli using unreliable transportation or walking on foot. These safety concerns, coupled with the tight financial restraints of village families, limit opportunities for girls to receive an education.
The main school building
The Shrimati Hoshiari Devi Girls School was founded in 1998 to fulfill a dream: to provide an excellent Indian value-based education to girls in a safe village environment. The dream began to take shape with the registration of the Arya Gram Vikas Samiti with the government of Uttar Pradesh for running the school and other charity projects in Rathora. The Samiti is dedicated to not only providing an excellent educational facility for girls, but also to fulfilling other needs such as implementing basic health care facilities for the village community, and for females in particular.
In 1999, the village Panchayat (local government) donated a piece of land to the Samiti for construction of the school building. Since then, and as of now, the campus consists of 10 classrooms, two science labs, a spacious library, a computer lab, a high ceiling multi-purpose hallway,offices for teaching and administrative staff, and a reception room. The Campus provides basic sanitation facilities, a steady supply of drinking water, and well-kept open spaces and grounds for games. The boundary walls encompassing the campus provide a safe environment, and ongoing maintenance keeps the campus clean and beautiful.
To keep continuous supply of power, when electric power supply is cut, theSchool has installed a powerful generator. For transportation of students from nearby villages, two School buses run daily, driven by experienced drivers.
Student Assembly
Starting in July 2007, the School enrolled 271 girls from grades six through twelve. It is recognized by the U.P. Education Board through tenth grade, and expects to receive recognition through the twelfth grade in 2008. All twenty girls from last year’s class twelve passed the U.P.Board exam given in March 2007. And 30 of 33 girls in the tenth class passed.
Extracurricular activities are integral to the curriculum at the Shrimati Hoshiari Devi Girls School, whereby Indian secular values are instilled and respect for diversity and the village elders are emphasized. Students perform Havans once a week, the school promotes cultural programs and organizes annual functions. Facilities for sports encourage students to participate in competitive games, and at the district level sports competitions students have won awards every year.
Entrance way to the school
The Shrimati Hoshiari Devi Primary School is co-educational through the fifth class, enrolling close to 300 students. It is located in an adjoining spacious, but run down, facility. Plans are:
To upgrade the primary school’s facilities.
To build an adequately equipped hall for students’ cultural activities and for the community’s functions.
To build a primary health care facility staffed by a person trained in health education.
As in any institution, the quality of education depends upon dedicated teaching staff. It is an expensive endeavor to attract quality instructors to a village school, and it is necessary to compensate them adequately with competitive salaries and annual increments in pay.Currently, the school charges the students a nominal tuition fee of Rs.100 per month, and even this is waived for those who cannot afford it. The tuition income does not break even the expenses for running the school, although included in the forecasted ten-year plan is the goal to attain self-sufficiency.
Samiti members receive no compensation for their services. Their services have proven invaluable in the school’s success within such a short amount of time. They are dedicated to:
Maintaining the Shrimati Hoshiari Devi Girls School as a SECULAR institution that provides a top-notch education and imparts sound values through open communication forums and extra curricular activities.
Having parent-teacher conferences to advise not only the girls about their future prospects, but also to share with their families the value of education.
The Shrimati Hoshiari Devi Girls School is funded through the NorthAmerican Jat Charities, Incorporated (NAJC) with funds provided primarily by Jagbir and Veena Singh. Two recent generous contributions by Ram Swarup and Santosh Arya ($17,000) and by Arvind and Rhoda Phatak($15,000) are thankfully acknowledged. We'd again like to thank Nitin and Monica Dahiya for their continued and extremely generous contributions. Also, thanks to Nitika Dabas, Ram Dhan and Nisha Singh, Greg and Susan Kreuer, Rajesh Singh, Seema and Ashee Bhan, Vivek Kundra, and Nihal Singh for their generous contributions.
A brief description about the NAJC follows.
The North American Jat Charities
The NAJC is a tax-deductible registered charity in New Jersey, USA as anorganization for undertaking charity projects in India, USA, and anywhere in the world. Briefly, its objectives are:
Provide relief to the poor, distressed or underprivileged, particularly in the community.
Eliminate prejudice and discrimination in any form or shape.
Create educational facilities, particularly in Indian villages.
Provide scholarships to qualified Jat students in India.
Provide health care facilities in Indian villages.
Establisha resource pool for providing assistance, financial and non-financial,to needy youths in the community to further their educational andscientific interests.
The November 2007 Annual Day Function at the Rathora Girls School was a tremendous sucess, and we are grateful for all the support we have. As the school years have progressed so have the students flourished and made a tremendous amount of progress.
This year, in addition to the prize giving ceremony honoring scholastic acheivements, the girls also performed lively plays and skits, showcasing their well-rounded academic and extra-curricular repertoire.
Please visit the Photo Gallery for pictures of the 2007 Annual Day function, as well as to see pictures from functions past.
