Day 2 in Delhi, India

On our second day in New Delhi, India, we travelled to Mandanpur Khadar which is an surban resettlement colony on the outskirts of Delhi. The Oxfam partner working there is called EFRAH, meaning Empowerment for Rehabilitation, Academic and Health. This organisation was set up to help get children into school and deal with problems that they may have at school.
First of all we were taken into a primary school where we attended Maths and English lessons. Although Sam couldn’t understand what the students or teachers were saying he thought that it looked as if the teachers were doing the best possible job to engage the pupils and give fun and interesting lessons. The teaching standard that we observed was very different to what we were told about yesterday by the children at the JOSH project. This proves that there are two sides to the story and that India has committed teachers.
 
After this we met a group of girls our own age. The members had faced many difficulties at school. In addition boys and young men regularly harassed them on their journeys to and from school. Some of the girls we met told stories of having stones thrown at them and others told us about sexual harassment including boys and men calling out abusive language.
One of the girls that Millie met wouldn’t even tell her parents of the sexual harassment that she was experiencing as she was afraid that her parents would blame her and take her out of school. This really shows how vulnerable girls in India are to dropping out of school and how determined they are to complete a good education.
Today has fully opened our eyes to the reality of the education system in India and especially to the injustice that girls face on a daily basis by the simple action of going to school.