Empowering Dreams, One Girl at a Time

In many parts of India, girls are often told by society what their ‘role’ is - to be a wife, a mother, a caretaker. They are not encouraged to have an education or a career. This is reflected in the female literacy rates in India significantly lagging behind their male counterparts. A consequence of a largely patriarchal mindset, one which devalues women’s and girls’ right to autonomy in their own lives.

Jayashree Belwade, 36, grew up having a fairly normal childhood. However, when she was in the tenth grade (final year of high school), due to financial constraints, her family had to move to Dharavi, one of the biggest slums in the world. Her father told her that she couldn’t go to school anymore.

That came as a shock to Jayashree. Having enjoyed going to school and studying, she could not fathom not being able to further her education. While she eventually did convince her father to let her go to college, Jayashree had to find the means to pay for her own college tuition. It was during this time of struggle in raising funds, that she discovered the Akshara Centre. 

Established in 1995 in Mumbai, Akshara works towards building a gender-equal society through its various programmes. Jayashree was one of the candidates to benefit from Akshara’s scholarship initiative - the Empowering Dreams Programme, which provides scholarships to fund the education of girls like Jayashree. Akshara Centre also conducts training to help its candidates to better secure employment after they graduate, imparting skills such as resume writing, and conducting mock job interviews.

Akshara wants to help girls gain confidence and instil the courage in them to achieve their dreams. They do this through exposure that allows them to interact with other girls and boys outside of the centre. In rural parts of India, spaces such as gardens and tea stalls are predominantly occupied by men. Being able to simply order from a tea stall and chat by the streets is a boost of confidence for the girls.

Urmila Salunkhe, the Programme Lead for Youth Fellowship and Training at Akshara, believes it is important for girls to become comfortable in public spaces.

“Girls from these communities have a lot of restrictions on them. They are only allowed permission to step out of their homes to go to college,” she shares, “By claiming these spaces it not only gives confidence to the girls but at the same time it tries to tell the boys and men that as much as this space is theirs, it also belongs to girls.”

Sayiad Khushnuma, one of the 5000 beneficiaries impacted by Akshara’s programme shares, “Initially we couldn’t go out and we would be scared, but Akshara guided us that we too are citizens of the country, and we have the freedom to roam around, go to different spaces for visits and to make friends.”

Jayashree is grateful to Akshara for broadening her horizons. “I didn’t just get a college education through Akshara. Life skills and how to live life is also something I got from there,” she shares.

Today, she has completed her MBA and is working in the social entrepreneurship field to advocate for a better system and community for women and girls.

“I know that no one can stop me now and that I will keep moving forward.”