Yogi govt's initiative Aarohini to empower underprivileged girls of Uttar Pradesh

Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government has launched a campaign titled Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan to make daughters of the underprivileged classes capable and self-reliant. The government is already running several programmes including Mission Shakti to empower the daughters of the state.

The campaign, 'Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan' will work in association with an NGO, under the Aarohini Initiative Training Program for the safety and security of girls in all 746 Kasturba Gandhi Residential Girls Schools in the state. The Campaign will be implemented in three phases.

"The campaign aims at enabling daughters of the underprivileged sections to raise their voice for their rights along with creating an understanding of the happenings in their lives among them," the government said in a statement.

"To make girls capable, training will be provided to full-time teachers of Kasturba Gandhi Residential Girls Schools, who will educate girls and be helpful to them. The training of teachers will start in Lucknow from February 1," the statement further added.

Director General of School Education, Vijay Kiran Anand said that the main objective of the Aarohini programme, which will be implemented in three phases, is gender sensitization.

"Teachers will be trained in the first phase, which will start on February 1. Two teachers of every Kasturba Gandhi Residential Girls' School will receive the training, who will then educate the girl students of the school. The institution will also groom the girls through debates and other activities along with the teachers. In the third phase, the campaign will be run at the community level, making people aware of the issue of gender sensitization," Anand said.

"Under the Basic Education Department, there are 746 Kasturba Gandhi Residential Girls Schools in the entire state, out of which 56 have been upgraded up to class 12th. Aarohini tackles the problems of these young girls. Warden will select teachers for training. Apart from this, the officer of the Basic Education Department will review this entire program from time to time," he added.

According to the government statement, "During the training, teachers will be told how this programme will work and how they have to make the children aware. The whole programme is based on Critical Feminist Pedagogy. The teachers will make children understand their problems and enable them to solve them independently."

"With the help of this, girls will be able to face challenges like child marriage, domestic violence, not being able to complete education or any kind of problem in a planned manner and raise their voices for their rights. Apart from this, the annual 'Daughters Campaign' will also be run in these schools where a specific issue is raised by involving children, the community and the teachers," the statement said.

( With inputs from ANI )