Education

Uneducated adults in India never learned how to read, write, or count money, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. They don’t know that it’s important to cover food in the kitchen to prevent bugs. To bathe on a regular basis. To wash their hands before preparing food. To eat healthy food. Because they lack basic knowledge, their children routinely get sick, and many parents turn to witch doctors for help instead of medical doctors.

In India, 80.9% of males are literate, compared to just 64.6% of women. Why? Because in many families, girls are seen as “less than.” If a family has limited finances, they prioritise sending their sons to school while keeping their daughters home to do household chores.

273 million adults in India can’t read this in their own language. That’s 1 in 4 men and women who are held back by illiteracy, lacking the basic skills to find stable jobs, open a bank account, and provide healthy lives for their children.

Many parents in India would love to send their children to school, but they feel they simply can’t because of their financial situation. Instead, they bring their young children to work with them, so desperate for immediate income that they sacrifice setting up their children for a better future.