Camera: Sanjoy Deb, Athar Rather, Shiv Kumar Maurya, Gautam Sharma
Video Editor: Deepthi Ramdas, Rahul Sanpui
"When I did something well, my teacher used to be proud of me. I liked hearing 'Kajal has done well'," said the 14-year-old, when The Quint met her in Delhi's Madanpur Khadar area.
Thousands like Kajal have not returned to schools after they were shut down along with the rest of the country as an initial response to the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020.
What was termed ‘unexpected chuttis’, turned into a nightmare for these kids. The pandemic and poverty forced them out of schools.
As my colleagues and I started researching for the story in August 2021,
we realised that girls were bigger casualties of dropping out of school.
In The Quint's latest video series 'लड़की हूं... पढ़ना चाहती हूं – India's Girls Out of School', we tell stories of girls from across the country who were forced to discontinue education. For this, we really need your support. Hard-hitting journalism is not just time-consuming, it is also expensive.
It will cost us ₹7,55,630 to complete this video series.
Every story involves months of research, travel, days of shoots, and post-production expenses.
The Stories of These Girls Moved Us
My colleagues and I are travelling to different parts of India. So far, we have covered Madanpur Khadar in Delhi, Govandi in Maharashtra, and Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh.
Tabassum in Maharashtra's Govandi.
(Photo: Mythreyee Ramesh/TheQuint)
The girls spoke about how they were yearning to go back to school, yearning for freedom to step out of their homes. They spoke about how they missed their friends, their classrooms – and most importantly, how much they missed studying.
Hitting the ground also made us realise that there are many such stories waiting to be told.
Kajal in Delhi's Madhanpur Kadhar.
(Photo: Athar Rather/TheQuint)
Every little contribution you make will empower us. It will enable us to amplify one of the most ignored stories of the pandemic.
You can help us meet our production cost by clicking on the link below in the description box.
By contributing to us, you are helping the girls to realise their dream.
You can help us meet our production cost by clicking on thequint.com/special-projects.
Every little contribution you make will empower us. It will enable us to amplify one of the most ignored stories of the pandemic.
By contributing to us, you are helping the girls to realise their dream.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)