The Girls Project, a partnership between the government of West Bengal and Landesa, aims to improve girls’ social and economic status, and thereby reduce their many vulnerabilities in the short and long-term. By increasing girls’ and communities’ understanding of girls’ land-related rights and helping girls to use land to create assets and demonstrate their value, girls can gain some control over their futures and are more likely to enjoy secure land rights as adults.
The project will reach 1.25 million girls in West Bengal through 2018, teaching them about their rights to own and inherit land, and receiving training in intensive gardening skills during regular meetings facilitated by rural health workers.
We know that land rights are a transformative resource that can empower women financially and socially. By providing West Bengal’s girls with a land education today, the Girls Project positions them to enjoy land rights tomorrow.
1. Educated girls are more than twice as likely to educate their own children. (UNICEF)
2. Educated girls are 50% more likely to immunize their own children. (Johns Hopkins)
3. A child born to a literate mother is 50% more likely to survive past the age of five. (Johns Hopkins)
4. The #1 cause of death for girls ages 15-19 is childbirth. (World Health Organization)
5. An extra year of primary school boosts girls’ eventual wages by 10% to 20%. (World Bank)
6. An extra year of secondary school boosts a girls’ eventual wages by 15% to 25% (World Bank)
7. If India enrolled 1% more girls in secondary school, its GDP would rise by $5.5 billion. (Global Campaign for Education and RESULTS Education Fund)
8. When a girl in the developing world receives seven or more years of education, she marries four years later and has two fewer children. (Clinton Global Initiative)
9. In India, adolescent pregnancy results in nearly $10 billion in lost potential income. (The Center for Global Development)
10. Educated girls are less likely to contract HIV and AIDS and pass it on to their children. (UNICEF)