Sakhiyon ki Baadi

(SDG 4 Quality Education)

Sakhiyon ki Baadi is the flagship initiative of IIFL Foundation that aims at the eradication of illiteracy. The initiative focuses on providing Foundational Literacy and Numeracy skills to thousands of underprivileged children, with a special focus on the girl child. Under the initiative, IIFL has enabled educational development by setting up schools in various districts of South Rajasthan, including tribal districts of Rajsamand, Udaipur and the aspirational district - Sirohi. 

In rural hamlets of Rajasthan, young girls are found to be 'out of school' owing to numerous reasons, ranging from poverty, illiteracy among parents, no access to school, cattle, and sibling care, or simply the pressure of earning money and contributing to family's meager income. Considering these challenges, the need to reach out to the girls, right in their village, and more importantly with a customized curriculum to simplify their learning process was required.

Thus, IIFL  initiated - Sakhiyon ki Baadi, a community-based learning center for girls in the age group of 4 to 14 years. The center serves as a primary connection to education for girls that have dropped out of school or have never been enrolled in one. 

Learning material is developed in alignment with the Rajasthan State board syllabus (RBSE) to conveniently bridge the girls into mainstream education (Govt. Schools) in near future. A number of activities, songs, and games are introduced by adopting the play-way method to lure children toward education.

Starting in 2016, today the program has covered 13 districts of Rajasthan with 1071 'Sakhiyon ki Baadi' learning centers that engage with over 3250+ girls and 3940+ boys.