The Balika Shivir or the Shivir (the commonly used names for the Balika Shikshan Shivir or Girls’ Education Camp)
The Balika Shivir or the Shivir (the commonly used names for the Balika Shikshan Shivir or Girls’ Education Camp) was a six-month residential education program for girls between the ages of 10-17 years who had dropped-out of school or been deprived of an education. These Shivirs were conducted annually between the years 1997-2009 in different regions of Rajasthan with a total of 63 primary education Shivirs and 8 secondary education Shivirs (grades 6-10) that were conducted by eight branches of URMUL. All in all approximately 11,000 girls have been educated in URMUL Balika Shivirs within a ten-year span.Within each primary education Shivir approximately 100 girls lived with their teachers for 6-8 months within a well-resourced environment in order to support their accelerated learning. The residential format of the Shivir provided participating girls a safe place and freedom from household and family work, thus giving them time to study and focus on themselves.The primary education Balika Shivir was conceptualized to be a “bridge program” that would facilitate girls’ entry into schools and their continued education. Accordingly, it included a primary school curriculum for grades 1-5 along with programs that had a health, social justice, and gender empowerment focus. Thus the Balika Shivir had two goals that were developed in direct response to local issues and to facilitate girls’ and women’s well-being in Rajasthan. Its immediate goal was to support girls’ acquisition of literacy skills and their participation in school. Its long-term goal was to make girls better informed about issues connected with their well being and to foster their critical awareness of themselves via-a-vis their communities along with a sense of personal empowerment.
