Pranati Mohanraj
After completing my master's degree in Social Work I worked in the Department of Education, Government of Madhya Pradesh, the central state of India for nine years.
Working with this department gave me ample opportunity to visit several villages of Madhya Pradesh and interact with members of families specially women. What struck me the most was that the status of women and girls in this part of
India is low, not only due to prevailing poor economic conditions, but due to social isolation and manifold discriminatory practices faced by them. The lower literacy amongst women and lack of access to education of girls are only the symptoms of the larger problems found in traditional rural communities.
I, through my research project intend to identify and analyse various social, cultural and ethnic factors inhibiting education of girls and to have an in-depth probe on the issues of non-enrolment of girls in school. The study will analyse various factors such as household-community level barriers, school-level barriers and policy as well as system-level barriers affecting education of girls' and identify reasons for prevailing low enrolment amongst girls in central India.