Writing on the Wall

Read and Lead

To read and discuss Safeena Hussain’s book, Every Last Girl.

Key Takeaways

• Problem: School lists missed 50% of out-of-school girls, who were invisible due to living outside catchment areas, lacking birth certificates, or being child brides (“bahus”), not counted as children.

• Solution: Educate Girls launched a door-to-door“Census for Girls,” creating its own maps and numbering every household to find every girl.

• Impact: The census was 98% accurate, proving government data was flawed and enabling the team to find 885 girls in the pilot—twice the official count.

• Validation: The team painted its logo and a unique number on each home, creating a physical address system for data verification and community identity.

Topics

The Problem: Invisible Girls

• Initial enrollment efforts, which relied on school lists, consistently missed a large population of girls.

• Reasons for invisibility:

  • Geography: Living outside official school catchment areas.

  • Unrecorded Births: Born at home (only 40% of births were in facilities in 2005), resulting in no birth certificate.

  • Child Brides (“Bahus” ): Considered adults, not children, and thus not counted on family lists.

    • Example: Aarti’s 7-year-old sister-in-law, Sheetal (12-13), was missed because the team only asked about “children.”

The Solution: A “Census for Girls”

• In 2010, the team abandoned school lists in favour of a comprehensive, door-to-door survey.

• Process:

  1. Village Mapping: Elders created a real-time map on chart paper, identifying every landmark and home, ignoring official catchments.

  2. Systematic Survey: The team visited every home and used a questionnaire designed by Vikram.

  3. Joint Family Counting: To avoid missing girls, the team counted each “tove and mother” as a distinct unit, not just the physical house.

• Team Dynamics:

  • Vikram: Led the systematic process, ensuring no one was missed.

  • Safina: Built community trust and relationships, attracting local support.

  • Sanjay: Demonstrated extreme dedication, crossing a river on a makeshift raft to find one girl, Pinky.

The Validation: “Writing on the Wall”

• To ensure data integrity and enable audits, the team painted its logo and a unique number on every surveyed home.

• Purpose:

  • Verification: Created a physical address system for cross-checking data.

  • Community Identity: The simple, democratic logo (E+G forming a girl’s head) was easily replicable, fostering a sense of shared ownership.

• Result: The wall paintings became a visible marker of an “Educate Girls village,” symbolising a community’s commitment to its girls.

Next Steps

• Sandeep: Contact Safeena Hussain’s office to schedule a “Brewing Knowledge” interview.

• All Participants:

  • Submit written reflections for potential publication on the www.brewingknowledge.com blog.

  • Recruit one new member for the reading group.     
    
    Notes courtesy FATHOM AI.