It Starts in the Classroom

This stunning photography series is part of “Imagining Equality,” an online media project that explores perspectives on women’s human rights and girls’ and women’s hopes for the future.

See the lives of India’s girls
Discover how education is a tool
for empowerment, equality, and freedom.

On the Imagining Equality website, photographer Charlotte Anderson shares: “It quickly became clear to me in a way I didn’t understand previously how empowering and important education can be.” What she wants you to know:

[symple_column size=”one-half” position=”first” fade_in=”false”]“I found it very rare to meet a girl who did not want to go to school, who did not dream of a life free from a patriarchal society and the ability to choose her own career.”

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62% of children who are out of school in India are GIRLS.

Low enrollment of girls in schools is due to poverty, social stigma, responsibilities to family, and inadequate facilities, such as the lack of toilets.

Once girls receive an education...

They want to choose who and when they marry, and if and when they will have children.

Their education empowers them to realize

It is their right to live in a world with choice and freedom.

Charlotte says: I have always had a deep interest in the role of women in our world. I grew up in a family who encouraged my independence, and was raised in New Zealand, a country where freedom for women is the norm. During this project, I feel very lucky to have met the wonderful people I did and to have seen a country where women are still fighting to have some of the simple rights I have always expected and taken for granted in my life.

4GGL thanks Imagining Equality for this inspiring story.

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Imagining Equality is an online media project exploring the art, voices, and stories of women from around the globe.

Sponsored by The International Museum of Women,
which is part of Global Fund for Women.

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