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Journalism of Courage
In focus
When Usman Mahendi helped a group of girls from a small town in Uttar Pradesh, who had dropped out from schools for various reasons, to get back to studies, he faced an unexpected response: they were more worried than happy.
Mahendi, the founder of Uttar Pradesh-based Panth Foundation, said that there are multiple reasons for this including fear of getting dropped out again or “not being upto the mark”.
The realisation that the girls were stressed out saw Mahendi reach out to mental health professional Faizan Abdulaziz Maniyar who was roped in to conduct a mental health workshop for the girls.
“Talking to the girls made me understand the trauma they were facing. Most of the girls had started showing physical symptoms. It took extensive work to ensure the girls realise that what they were going through was natural and can be resolved by creation of safe spaces,” he said.
Maniyar, who had worked as a Human Resources professional with an MNC before plunging into the world of mental health , said this was the first time he had come across such a phenomenon.
“Here we had girls who were getting a second chance but they were worried if they would be able to make use of it. Given that mental health is hardly talked about, this was our first brush with the mental health that students face at the grassroot level,” he said.
At the national level, the drop out ratio at secondary level is above 10 per cent but is higher among girls than boys, as per the information provided by the Unified District Information System for Education portal.
Thus by the time girls reach Class 10, chances of them dropping out are more than boys.
Mahendi’s idea of the Panth Foundation started from his close working in the Muzaffarnagar area in the education and development sector.
He came up with the idea when he realised many girls dropped out after class 8 for various reasons.
“Most of them finish their class 8 due to the implementation of the Right to Education (RTE) Act. But after that girls drop out for many reasons- ranging from financial issues to social belief that girls need not study much,” he said.
It was to address these issues, Mahendi said, that Panth Foundation was founded last year and through its outreach in the community to get girls back to school.
While last year, the foundation had managed to get 15 girls back to school, this year they have managed to get 50 girls back, he added.
Speaking about this interaction with the girls, Maniyar shared the insights he got from them.
“One girl, with her hands trembling, spoke of the constant fear that she might be forced to drop out again. She had fought her way back into school, but the thought of losing it again sat like a stone on her chest. Her dream is to become a lawyer, to stand up for people in her community who have no one to fight for them. Another girl told us about her best friend, who had died by suicide. No one had told her about the funeral. Some even blamed her for the death. Now, she climbs to her rooftop and talks to her friend’s grave from a distance. She had never shared this with anyone before that day,” he said.
Most girls said they were worried about their performance and it bordered trauma for them.
For girls who have dropped out, getting back is not an easy feat. Even if the girls and families are ready to continue, finance becomes an obstruction.
The government schools have limited seats and private education can be out of bound for the girls.
“We manage to bridge the economic gap through donations from friends but we want girls to get back to school,” Mahendi said.
As part of their learning from this year, Mahendi said they have decided to add mental health workshops in every quarter.
“Mental health in this sector is important. For the girls who are getting back to school, it is the thin line that would make them choose whether to continue or not,” he said.
