Located in Anupshahr town of Bulandshahr district in the western Uttar Pradesh, the Pardada Pardadi Educational Society (PPES) is enabling girls and women to become assertive and articulative. Established with the idea of empowering women by making them financially and socially independent, as envisioned by the founder Virendra ‘Sam’ Singh, PPES is making real changes that our highly patriarchal society needs with utmost priority and urgency.
For any country to become great, the women of that country need to be financially and socially independent – Virendra Sam Singh
The School
When Pardada Pardadi School was established in the year 2000, Sam recalls how difficult it was to kick off the school with the vision that he came back to India with. While returning from the US, Sam thought of enlightening society through providing education to the village girls. What he found out on the ground was entirely in contrast with the vision and the thought of him doing it flawlessly.
When he asked the mothers about sending their daughters to the school, He says, “The mothers had two concerns about their daughter’s marriage and the cloths that can cover their body in full”.
Responding to their concerns, PPES formulated a policy of crediting INR 10 to the bank account of every girl for each day of their attendance. Sam explains that when a girl graduates from the school, she has around INR 50 thousand in the bank account, which will cover major expenses that are incurred while her marriage. Moreover, the school also offers three meals a day, transport facilities and a bicycle to every student. Following the changes made, several mothers become confident about sending their daughters to PPES.
Today, thousands of girls have graduated from the school. A number of them are working in some of the best corporates, not only in India but across the world. Few of them have got admissions in some of the best universities in the world. But, due to numerous circumstances, most of the girls discontinue their education following the completion of 12th grade. With Sam’s holistic vision for the overall development of the society through economically empowered women, several school graduates and dropouts are working in the ‘iVillage’ industry.
If you mean it, if you are sincere, people will believe you, people will trust you and people will give their best for you to succeed – Virendra Sam Singh
iVillage And Community Development
iVillage is a partner organisation of PPES and is a social enterprise that aims to empower rural women by giving them lucrative livelihood opportunities. The industry provides on the job training in machine embroidery, hand embroidery, and stitching. It employs over 100 women from the surrounding areas and has proved to an institution of economic importance in Anupshahr town.
PPES has also been instrumental in establishing the Community Development Division (CDD) to ensure the social and economic empowerment of the women in the rural area. CDD helps in creating savings and inter-loan options, and it also leveraged the creation of the number of self-help groups (SHGs) with 10-12 women members in each unit. Under SHGs, the members have created a pot of money where they save funds to avail inter-loan facilities when required.
Interestingly, these SHGs have successfully trained rural women in banking and finance management. The inter-loan facility, along with the skills to manage their resources, has helped women in the elevation of their self-respect and confidence to another level. It has also protected them from getting exploit by the moneylenders. These women have utilised SHGs as a platform where they can raise their concerns, share their ideas, and enlighten themselves about their rights and duties. Under the guidance of PPES, these SHGs are now planning to elevate themselves to become a federation.
Education is not about academics; education teaches you about life. Success is not because one girl achieved, success is where everybody has equal access to their rights – Renuka Singh, CEO, PPES
In India, even after seven decades of getting independence from the colonial rule, we have failed to achieve gender parity. Even today, women face discrimination in almost every sector of society. The conditions in rural areas are not only inadequate but immoral. Famous for its patriarchal society, it was not easy for Sam and the team to not only establish the model for the empowerment of women in Anupshahr but also to make it a thriving institution. Amidst a number of death threats and violent attacks, PPES has enabled thousands of women not only to dream but has also paved the way to fulfil those dreams.
The inspiring journey of PPES will create a spark amongst several other people so that they can establish such institutions. With a population of over 1.3 billion people, developing institutions like PPES across the nation is the only way we can achieve the dream of bringing complete gender parity -an idea of building Indian society free of any discrimination.
I visited the premises of the PPES in early 2019. It has been more than a year, and the memories are still fresh. The experience of witnessing abundant energy in one place was inspiring. The girls in green uniforms were playing, singing, debating, asking questions, responding to analytical answers to your questions, and what not?
The school wholeheartedly welcomes visitors if you want to experience holistic women empowerment in India in an authentic sense. Make sure you must visit this place at least once before you die!