Today I visited a NGO named Udayan Care. It was started by Dr. Kiran Modi after a personal tragedy. One of the schemes launched by Udayan Care is known as Udayan Shalini fellowships. The scheme provides fellowships to young girls who want to pursue higher education but cannot because of circumstances. Very often girls have to drop out of school because they have to add to the family income or the family is pressurizing them to get married or there is no money. Dr. Modi told me how the scheme was initiated. At first the organization was focusing on orphans. They had started homes for these children much like the SOS village. Then one day her driver said to her that he wished he was dead because then the education of his children too would have been taken care by Dr. Modi's organization. And thus was launched the scheme.
I was reminded of my own encounter with a young woman at Bahranpur. Here, Mahila Swarojgar Samiti has organized Self Help groups for women. When we reached the village the women all got together. A young woman sat besides me. She asked me where I was from. I asked her what she was doing.
"I am in the final year Inter," she confided.
Final year Inter is equivalent to 12th class.
"What will you do next?"
"I will have to stop my studies."
"Why?"
"We have no money. I have to start earning."
"What will you do if you had money to go to college?"
Her eyes lit up.
"I would like to become a doctor."
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