Pratham USA received a $250,000 grant June 1 from Deloitte Touche Tomahatsu Ltd to develop residential vocational training centers for older Indian girls who have dropped out of school.
The grant – known as the Deloitte21 Challenge - was announced at Deloitte's 2011 World Meetings in Washington, D.C. A second Challenge grant was awarded to INJAZ al-Arab to foster entrepreneurship amongst young people in theMiddle East. Indian American Fareed Zakaria - editor-at-large at Time magazine and host of CNN's GPS - was a keynote speaker at the World Meetings, along with former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
The Indian Ministry of Women and Child Development noted in a 2010 report that one-third of girls drop out before completing fifth grade and nearly 60 percent drop out by age 14. Only half of India's girls are literate, compared to almost three-fourths of the country's boys.
Pratham, India's largest educational organization, will launch three residential vocational training centers this July, two outside Mumbai, and one near Hyderabad, where Deloitte has a large base. The centers are aimed at 16-18 year-old girls who have dropped out of school.
Pratham Achievement Centers – which may be known in the future as the Pratham-Deloitte Achievement Centers – will offer practical skills to young women, such as cosmetology, sewing and embroidery, computer training and hospitality, the latter in partnership with the Taj Group, Sangita Karra, Pratham USA's vice president of development, told India-West.
Each center will house up to 50 girls and equip them with life skills, such as the etiquette of working within a company, she said. The girls will also learn English and teaching skills they can take back to their villages to train other youth, said Karra.
Deloitte US volunteers will train students and teachers, consult in the management of each center, and develop plans for new centers.
Girls drop out of school because their parents don't want to send them to schools at some distance," said Karra, adding that family obligations – such as caring for younger siblings - and possible employment are also reasons why girls drop out of school.
"The outlook for these women is not good at all," she asserted, noting that slum girls who drop out of school are often forced into prostitution to earn their living.
"Young people from low income groups are most prone to drop out of the education system due to economic and social pressures and poor quality education, effectively barring them from competing successfully for jobs in the formal sector," said Meenakshi Nayar, founder of the New Delhi-based Etasha Society, which offers vocational training to low-income youth.
"Girls face additional cultural pressures to either stay at home, or work only in a limited number of 'suitable' jobs which makes the task of getting them into work even harder, so it is imperative that special efforts are made to train and help them," Nayar told India-West.
Vocational training provides low-cost, low-investment access to a surplus of jobs in high-growth sector industries, she said.
"This initiative received fairly widespread support among Indians and non-Indians alike who were passionate about educating girls in India and helping them break out of the cycle of poverty," Deloitte consulting principal Ashish Goel, who is leading the initiative with consulting principal Kamal Gupta, told India-West.
The Pratham initiative has received the support of Punit Renjen, Deloitte LLP's new chairman of the board, said Goel, adding that Evan Hochberg, Deloitte's national director of community involvement, along with Deloitte consultants Katie Beacham and Kelly Nelson, were instrumental in launching the project.
Pratham expects to launch five training centers over the next five years, but Goel envisioned a faster-paced scale-up of the venture. "We want to make the Deloitte21 Challenge our number one philanthropic education initiative," he said.
"The world is currently facing a growing talent gap between what potential workers are learning and the actual skills needed to thrive today and in the future," said Deloitte CEO Barry Salzberg in a press statement. "It is imperative for businesses worldwide to recognize this void and take action toward adequately preparing young people for a knowledge-based economy," he added.
Each year, with a grant from Google, Pratham conducts the Annual Status of Education Report across India, surveying more than 16,000 villages for reading and math levels. In 2007, with the support of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Pratham launched the Read India campaign to reach 100 million children in India who cannot read, write or do basic math.
The grant – known as the Deloitte21 Challenge - was announced at Deloitte's 2011 World Meetings in Washington, D.C. A second Challenge grant was awarded to INJAZ al-Arab to foster entrepreneurship amongst young people in theMiddle East. Indian American Fareed Zakaria - editor-at-large at Time magazine and host of CNN's GPS - was a keynote speaker at the World Meetings, along with former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
The Indian Ministry of Women and Child Development noted in a 2010 report that one-third of girls drop out before completing fifth grade and nearly 60 percent drop out by age 14. Only half of India's girls are literate, compared to almost three-fourths of the country's boys.
Pratham, India's largest educational organization, will launch three residential vocational training centers this July, two outside Mumbai, and one near Hyderabad, where Deloitte has a large base. The centers are aimed at 16-18 year-old girls who have dropped out of school.
Pratham Achievement Centers – which may be known in the future as the Pratham-Deloitte Achievement Centers – will offer practical skills to young women, such as cosmetology, sewing and embroidery, computer training and hospitality, the latter in partnership with the Taj Group, Sangita Karra, Pratham USA's vice president of development, told India-West.
Each center will house up to 50 girls and equip them with life skills, such as the etiquette of working within a company, she said. The girls will also learn English and teaching skills they can take back to their villages to train other youth, said Karra.
Deloitte US volunteers will train students and teachers, consult in the management of each center, and develop plans for new centers.
Girls drop out of school because their parents don't want to send them to schools at some distance," said Karra, adding that family obligations – such as caring for younger siblings - and possible employment are also reasons why girls drop out of school.
"The outlook for these women is not good at all," she asserted, noting that slum girls who drop out of school are often forced into prostitution to earn their living.
"Young people from low income groups are most prone to drop out of the education system due to economic and social pressures and poor quality education, effectively barring them from competing successfully for jobs in the formal sector," said Meenakshi Nayar, founder of the New Delhi-based Etasha Society, which offers vocational training to low-income youth.
"Girls face additional cultural pressures to either stay at home, or work only in a limited number of 'suitable' jobs which makes the task of getting them into work even harder, so it is imperative that special efforts are made to train and help them," Nayar told India-West.
Vocational training provides low-cost, low-investment access to a surplus of jobs in high-growth sector industries, she said.
"This initiative received fairly widespread support among Indians and non-Indians alike who were passionate about educating girls in India and helping them break out of the cycle of poverty," Deloitte consulting principal Ashish Goel, who is leading the initiative with consulting principal Kamal Gupta, told India-West.
The Pratham initiative has received the support of Punit Renjen, Deloitte LLP's new chairman of the board, said Goel, adding that Evan Hochberg, Deloitte's national director of community involvement, along with Deloitte consultants Katie Beacham and Kelly Nelson, were instrumental in launching the project.
Pratham expects to launch five training centers over the next five years, but Goel envisioned a faster-paced scale-up of the venture. "We want to make the Deloitte21 Challenge our number one philanthropic education initiative," he said.
"The world is currently facing a growing talent gap between what potential workers are learning and the actual skills needed to thrive today and in the future," said Deloitte CEO Barry Salzberg in a press statement. "It is imperative for businesses worldwide to recognize this void and take action toward adequately preparing young people for a knowledge-based economy," he added.
Each year, with a grant from Google, Pratham conducts the Annual Status of Education Report across India, surveying more than 16,000 villages for reading and math levels. In 2007, with the support of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Pratham launched the Read India campaign to reach 100 million children in India who cannot read, write or do basic math.
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