[sustran] Re: Bicycles and literacy in India

[ashok datar]

yes . focussing on providing bikes to girls is a high yield investment in
empowerment of women and sustainable mobility for people and countries.
it is great and worth continuously tracking, improving and replicating
ashok datar

On Sat, Jun 4, 2011 at 1:18 AM, Lloyd Wright <lwright at vivacities.org> wrote:

>
> 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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>
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>
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-- 
Ashok R.Datar
Mumbai Environmental Social Network
20 Madhavi, Makarand Society, S.V.S.Marg, Mahim-400 016
98676 65107/0222 444 9212 see our website : www.mesn.org

* I hear, then I forget.  I see, then I remember. I do, then I understand.*