[sustran] Bicycles and literacy in India

Lloyd Wright lwright at vivacities.org
Sat Jun 4 04:48:38 JST 2011


http://www.grist.org/list/2011-06-02-how-bicycles-are-solving-illiteracy-and
-empowering-women-in-indi


How bicycles are fighting illiteracy and empowering women in India 


by Jess Zimmerman <http://www.grist.org/people/Jess+Zimmerman>  

2 Jun 2011 9:23 AM

The Indian state of Bihar has only a 33 percent literacy rate for women --
the lowest in the country. But the state government, headed by Chief
Minister Nitish Kumar, is turning education for girls around -- with
bicycles. In 2007 Kumar instituted a plan
<http://alttransport.com/2011/06/india-empowers-students-with-free-bicycles/
>  to give schoolgirls money to buy bicycles once they successfully complete
Class 8 (eighth grade). With girls now able to easily get themselves to
school, Bihar swelled its Class 9 enrollment by 170,000 in the program's
first year.

The state gave out 871,000 bikes in its first three years, and dropouts
among girls have dropped from 2.5 million to 1 million per year. The program
has been so successful that other states in India are launching similar
initiatives, and Bihar is expanding the program to include boys too. 

Viva

Changing the world.one street at a time.

 

Lloyd Wright

Executive Director

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Email Lwright at vivacities.org

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