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RAMPUR SINGHARA, India – The daily trip to high school was expensive, long and eventually,too much for Indian teenager Nahid Farzana, who decided she wasgoing to drop out. Then, the state government gave her a bicycle. Two years later, she is about to graduate from high school andwants to be a teacher. The eastern state of Bihar has been so successful at keepingteenage girls in school, the bike giveaways have spread toneighboring states. Now the Indian government wants to expand itacross the country in hopes it might help improve female literacy. Before starting the program in 2007, officials in Bihar, one ofIndia's poorest and least developed states, despaired over how toeducate the state's females, whose literacy rate of 53 percent ismore than 20 points below that of its males. "We found that the high school dropout rate soared when girlsreached the ninth grade. This was primarily because there are fewerhigh schools and girls had to travel longer distances to get toschool," said Anjani Kumar Singh, Bihar's principal secretaryoverseeing education. Poor families could not spare the money for transport, or werereluctant to let girls travel so far away, fearing for theirsafety. The program was an instant success, with the number of girlsregistered in the ninth grade in Bihar's state schools more thantripling in four years, from 175,000 to 600,000. "The results are remarkable. The school dropout rate for girls hasplunged," says Singh. In her crisply starched blue tunic uniform and white scarf, Farzanaappears a carefree teenager, proud to have made it into the tenthgrade. But she almost did not make it. Her daily bus fare of 15 rupees (22 cents) to the new high school 6kilometers (4 miles) from their home in Rampur Singhara village wasan additional burden her father, a car mechanic, could not afford. "I wouldn't have been able to keep Farzana in school for long,"said Mohammed Shiraz Ahmad, her father. A teacher told them about the free bicycles, and Farzana appliedfor the 2,500 rupee ($50) grant to buy the bike. "The bicycle has changed everything," Ahmad said. In remote villages, along dusty potholed lanes surrounded bysheaves of waving wheat, gaggles of school girls can be seenjauntily cycling to school. The program has also raised the status of girls, who are often seenas a burden in son-obsessed India, where parents have to pay suchhefty dowries to marry off their daughters that the family is oftenindebted for decades. Now, girls are bringing an asset to the family, Singh said. Mohammed Jalaluddin, who runs a tea stall in Rampur Singhara, sayshis daughter's bike is used by the entire family. Nizhat Parveen, his 16-year-old daughter, drops her brother at hisschool on the way to hers. When she returns, the family uses thebicycle for chores, from shopping for groceries to making fooddeliveries from the tea shop. Bihar is also giving free school uniforms to girls to keep them inschool. The bike grant money is put into a joint bank account inthe names of the student and her parents, and school administratorsmonitor whether the girls buy bicycles and use them, or if the bikeis sold and the girl ends up leaving school, Singh said. Butmostly, the program operates on the honor system. While corruption and fraudulent use of state money is rife inIndia, the Bihar government reports misuse of the bicycle funds is1 percent. The results from Bihar were so encouraging that the program hasbeen adopted by the neighboring states of Madhya Pradesh andChhattisgarh. Rajasthan, another state with low female literacyrates, has launched a free bicycle program for girls in secondaryand high school. The federal government is exploring a plan to give bicycles toMuslim girls as their dropout rate is worse than that of othercommunities. The bicycle program "has worked very well," says Syeda Hameed, amember of India's powerful Planning Commission body. Hameed said the body is also looking at other factors that affectschool attendance by girls in the higher classes, such as the lackof toilets in schools. In poor families, older girls also leave school to take care ofyounger siblings while parents work. "This is a persistent problemwhich tends to push up dropout rates and is a matter of concern,"Hameed said. But with the bicycle program gaining in popularity, authorities aretightening conditions, demanding students have 75 percentattendance to "earn" their uniforms and the bicycle. For high school student Parveen, her proudest possession, the freebicycle, has allowed her to dream of even greater things. "Even college doesn't seem far away now," she says. ___ George reported from New Delhi. We are high quality suppliers, our products such as China RF Cavitation Slimming Machine , China RF Beauty Machine for oversee buyer. To know more, please visits Cavitation Slimming Machine.
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