Executive Summary: India is a country of deviation in the case of gender equality. On the one hand, women are revered as deities, and no task can begin without her blessings. Although we live in the twenty-first century, social problems still exist.

• Gender Inequality
• Low Literacy Rate
• Female Foeticide & Infanticide
• Low Employment Options

Education disparities in India:

• Schooling
• Secondary Education
• Post-Secondary Education
• Literacy
• Reservation of female students

How big is the menace?

• 67% of rural households in Punjab have at least one drug addict.
• 3 out of 10 girls have abused one or the other drug.
• 66% of school students consume gutka or tobacco.
• Nearly 7 out of every ten college students abuse drugs in some form or the other.
• A key reason is the easy availability of drugs in Punjab.
• Afghanistan and Pakistan, which have a long history of opium production & has made it a transit point for entry of drugs into the country. The problem is increasing day by day.
• Until a few years back, only the border areas were affected by drugs, but it has applied to other communities.

Source: State government’s affidavit submitted to Punjab and Haryana high court in 2009

A Feasible Solution: Akal Institute of Rural Women Empowerment (AIRWE) is a free residential program run by The Kalgidhar Society for underprivileged young women from remote areas of North India. They are provided education with a blend of modern scientific teaching and spiritual learning, which usually take 4-6 years depending upon their aptitude at the time of admission. The center is affiliated with the NIOS board and Eternal University (UGC approved). After completing education here, these girls become eligible enough to secure service as educators or administrators in reputed schools easily. During their stay in this academy, these students avail free boarding, lodging, medical and other facilities.

Main objectives

• To encourage impoverished rural girls with a blend of scientific and spiritual education.
• To empower them with emotional, moral and intellectual fortitude.
• To instill the qualities of patience, tolerance, and seriousness that characterize good people and improve society's general structure.
• To proficient them in English language skills.
• To inculcate virtues of selflessness and universal brotherhood within them.

The goal of the project: This one-of-a-kind Educational Skill Development Program targets poor female students of Class 10/12 from outlying rural districts of North India. The Kalgidhar Society provides intense educational skill training in English language and communication, current teaching methodologies and computer education. All students are uplifted in spiritual concepts, moral values, and dedicated services to humanity with compassion and love.

Learnings and Sustainability: For the last three decades, the organization has been carrying the projects on Individual donations. Our NGO has taken loans to serve humanity. Meanwhile, the Government introduced the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) to support NGOs like us. Under this scheme, we got two loans worth 2.50 cr and 3.90 cr to overcome the overhead running expenses in similar charity projects during the Covid-19 pandemic. “The Kalgidhar Society” was awarded the United Nations Development Programme’s SDGCC supported SDG Action Award for achieving sustainable development goals by the Punjab Planning Department on 28 September 2020. As stated earlier, we have 129 Academies covering 6450 villages across the five northern states of India. We keep on adding new classes to rising schools, and it creates an ongoing need for qualified teaching and non-teaching staff; we fulfill this from our women empowerment project.

Overall Impact & Outcome: This program was initiated to empower rural underprivileged girls with equal focus on embedding the values so that we can facilitate society. The beneficiaries turned out to be an influencer in the Society, and ultimately, they turned into “bread earners” and reduced the burden on the family. They also help the economy, further adding to the country's GDP.

Project Benefits:

• Each year, around 150-200 girl Students from rural low & middle-income categories with around 30% of them being from SC/ST/OBC categories, will get free of cost accommodation during their academic tenure.
• 70% would be going for higher education for the first time in their families.
• Another 2500 underprivileged girl students will pass out in a decade with this facility.
• Girl students will  turn  the DNA of the families that they get married into.
• Around 800 teaching and 1700 non-teaching jobs will be generated in 10 years
• Rural Talent will be retained in rural areas.
• Approximately 200 parents have socio-economic benefits every year.
• The educated students are becoming employable, and wage earners for their families positively impact the local area's GDP and the Indian economy.

Need Assessment: Still women in our society have little or no access to education. This program is designed to support underprivileged rural girls studying in the AIRWE wing of Eternal University, via this we sponsor the education, hostel & mess fees for enrolled girls. This one-of-a-kind Educational Skill Development Program targets poor female students of Class 10/12 from outlying rural districts of North India, by providing intense educational skill training in English language and communication, current teaching methodologies and computer education along with spiritual concepts, moral values. So far, this programme has benefited and placed over 2000 rural girls. Currently, we have 367 girls enrolled under this scheme, Since the strength of beneficiaries is increasing and there is a massive demand for this program amongst the rural targeted areas, the Society is incapable of meeting such finance as ongoing support.

Annual Fee Structure of Girls Enrolled in AIRWE-Akal Institute of Rural Women Empowerment Under Eternal University Himachal Pradesh.

The cost of sponsoring 1 rural women's education is Rs.30,000-/ annually, Corporate may sponsor and support several beneficiaries they intend to serve under the CSR Initiative, as The Kalgidhar Society is eligible to receive CSR funds under MCA.

• Free Education for All: We genuinely believe that lack of education is a crucial challenge preventing young girls from accessing growth opportunities. At AIRWE, we aim to use education as a weapon to break the barriers of poverty. We provide free higher education to young females and help them transform their lives.
• Holistic Education: The program brings together a holistic learning curriculum that teaches students to reflect on their actions and how they affect the global and local communities and how to learn from the community around them. Our primary focus is on modern education with the strong support of the spiritual aura. To provide excellent English proficiency and life skills to empower these young girls to become future-ready. 
• Provision of key professionals: Our devoted and skilled staff makes extraordinary efforts to educate the young girls in rural India to address the lack of opportunities and resources. Our faculty have received the greatest of spiritual and conventional education; they come from well-acclaimed institutions and are experts in their fields. The programme also empowers the young girls emotionally, morally, and intellectually, instilling in them the virtues of selfless service and universal brotherhood and a solid character to become future good human beings who will help improve society's general structure.

Other Measures Adopted by The Kalgidhar Society

• Encouraging Subsidized or Free Education for Underprivileged Rural Kids: Poverty is one of rural India's most critical and joint problems. It is also one of the major obstructions in propelling education in rural India. To overcome this, our schools/universities provide free/aided education to almost 35% of students. Moreover, the women empowerment project for promoting Education & Skill Development is entirely supported by the trust, and around 360 Girls are getting trained under this initiative. 
• Applying Innovative Teaching Methods: Many institutes in urban areas have adopted newer teaching techniques; however, it is not that easy to implement in rural zones. We have adopted concept learning in our institutes to develop students holistically; we also organize webinars and physical sessions to enhance students’ abilities. We have developed an online learning system collaborating with Amazon Web Services to provide online education and assessments.
• Provide Adequate Infrastructure for Rural Institutes: If we have to lay the foundation of solid educational life, it must start with no delays; and It can only be done with the optimum infrastructure for rural educational institutes. We provide competent science labs, Language and ICT labs, libraries, digital classrooms, boarding & lodging and mess for all the students.
• Promoting Computer & Web-Based Literacy: Though our country is progressing technologically, there is a digital gap between urban and rural areas. To fill this gap, we adopted the latest practices. During the Covid pandemic, we collaborated with AWS (Amazon Web Services); it is one of the most significant collaborations with a cloud service provider like Amazon under the rural empowerment initiative by the society. 
• On-Job Training for Students under Skill Development Program: We also provide on-job training to girls in their master’s courses. It is also a significant replication of the sustainability of this project. On-the-job training isn’t always standard practice, but it can increase the productivity and efficiency of the trainee. 
• Embedding Skillset & Generating Employable Rural Women: One cannot define empowerment without engagement in occupation. Our women empowerment program fulfills this foremost necessity.
• Volunteer Based Upliftment Program: We have numerous volunteers from different professional backgrounds and especially a team of educationists, who usually conduct online/offline sessions for all these students to improve their skill sets regularly. We are also enrolling these girls on the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) training course; this course helps students better understand a language.
• Health & Nutrition: Health, hygiene and nutrition are essential for growing girls. We have a team of skilled dieticians, gynecologists, general physicians & mental health counselors, and they frequently provide their services to these girls. It is undoubtedly a significant aspect of the sustainability of the project. This program also covers the practice of first-aid treatment. We trained our students to handle the medical emergency call at the primary level to avoid some severe health conditions.

Apart from the points mentioned above, our volunteers run regular drives to create awareness of the importance of girls’ education; they also arrange door-to-door campaigns and one to one counseling with eligible students & their families. Because of their relentless efforts, we manage to bridge the gap by bringing actual needy girls to enroll in this program to realize their true worth.

Though the problem is relatively significant in society yet, with the existing monetary & physical resources, we managed to create quality jobs. “Akal Institute of Rural Women Empowerment” enrolls about 150-200 students each year. Our society broadly emphasizes rural women's empowerment. We are delighted that all head principals of our 129 schools are women-only, and 70% (4700) of the total employees are women. Each newly employed teacher, through this project, changes the lives of their direct family and makes a positive impact on their local villagers. Combinedly, they also affect GDP and participate in economic growth.