Bond Girls

But the village, Kanda, finds place in some telling and important government records. At 6.8 per cent literacy, Kanda is in a list of 506 villages in Vadodara district with literacy between zero to 20 per cent.

8216;8216;I have seven children and six never went to school!8217;8217; boasts Roopsingh, a wrinkled old mason at Kanda.

But his village is better off than its neighbours. About 80 kms from Kanda is Degla village. Literacy: 2.20 per cent.

But Roopsingh8217;s daughter Urmila and 28 girls of Kanda village have slowly made it to the centre of Gujarat8217;s populist education policies. If the girls go to Class I, they receive bonds worth Rs 1,000 in the name of the Narmada.

Two years ago, the state government announced a Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Ltd bond of

Rs 1,000 per girl child who attends school in regions with literacy between zero to 35 per cent. The bond matures only by Class VII.

But on the sun-baked fields in remote Gujarat, it8217;s just a piece of paper that8217;s left many parents rather confused. Many presume they will soon get cash in return for sending their girls to school.

8216;8216;The tribals think they8217;ll soon get cash in return for educating girls. They have no value for bonds they don8217;t even understand,8217;8217; says a local education officer, who attempted explaining the scheme to locals. 8216;8216;They hardly enrolled their girls in school till a few years ago,8217;8217; he says.

8216;8216;A teacher told me to send my youngest daughter Urmila to school, and we would get Rs 1,000 in return,8217;8217; Roopsingh grins. 8216;8216;We8217;ll get money and her life may even improve, so what8217;s wrong with that?8217;8217;

Vadodara8217;s 14,884 girls now possess bonds valid till Class VII, and Kanda has added 28 to the list.

Class I student Kaliben Rathwa is a school girl since last June. 8216;8216;I8217;ll use the money for her jewellery,8217;8217; her mother Undhali says from behind her pallu. She8217;s a mother of two girls, five boys. Only two are in school.

On March 26, 8216;8216;gender education8217;8217; meetings by the government urged Kanda8217;s women to come out of purdah. Some veils are hesitantly being lifted.

At this predominantly Hindu village nestled between villages with an average 11.10 per cent literacy, Vistabhai Rathwa8212;father of six8212;is an educated man among his neighbours. He studied up to Class IV.

8216;8216;One of my girls is worth Rs 1,000!8217;8217; he smiles. The education officers who overhear him remind him he has to wait seven years more for custody of the bond. 8216;8216;Yes, yes, I know I have to wait,8217;8217; he corrects himself quickly. Seven years from now, the bond will mature to an estimated value of Rs 2,000.

It8217;s difficult to say if the Rs 1,000 incentive has swayed votes in favour of the CM who introduced this scheme in the interiors of Gujarat. Kanda8217;s mothers and daughters still don8217;t know who he is.