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Since July 14, 26-year-old <keyword id="3645213" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="sumeet-paringe">Sumeet Paringe</keyword> and 22-year-old old <keyword id="3491847" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="prisiliya-madan">Prisiliya Madan</keyword>, two <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=cycling+enthusiasts&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">cycling enthusiasts</a> from <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=mumbai&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Mumbai</a> have been <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=cycling&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">cycling </a>across India armed with a mission. The duo, who started their journey from <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/10-Beautiful-Pictures-From-The-Longest-Train-Ride-In-India/articleshow/51421012.cms">Kanyakumari</a> in <keyword id="20154" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="tamil-nadu">Tamil Nadu</keyword> and will end it at <keyword id="798696" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Khardung-La">Khardung-la</keyword> in Jammu and <keyword id="6354495" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="kashmir">Kashmir</keyword>, have undertaken this expedition for a cause they care strongly about-girl child education. 
 This ‘<keyword id="3645214" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Cyclists-for-Change">Cyclists for Change</keyword> journey’ will see them crossing 11 states, covering a distance of 4,400 kilometres in a span of 70 days. Though Paringe and Madan have both paddled on this route before, this is their first trip together. 
 
While they travel across the length of India, raising awareness on girl child education, an online campaign on crowd funding platform Fuel A Dream is raising funds to educate girls. They aim to raise Rs 50 lakh to support education of 1500 girls for one year. 
 
“Education is the key to empower women and girls, which helps bring about social equality. When you educate a girl, you educate a family”, said Paringe as he started the journey. Madan, on the other hand is of the belief that every girl should be given the opportunity to pursue education. 
 The ride is rather unique given that the cyclists are travelling on bamboo bikes specially designed and manufactured for them by <keyword id="6369697" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Godrej">Godrej</keyword>. This is the first time in India that any cyclist will ride this route and distance on bamboo bikes, which are eco-friendly and light. 
 
 
 
 
“Our previous rides were purely out of our passion for cycling. But this time, when we were approached to ride for girl child education, we happily agreed. I am cycling because I am passionate about it and I believe every girl should drive towards her passion. Education will help this and thus we undertook this journey,” said Paringe who is a passionate mountaineer and cyclist. 
 
They cycle for approximately eight hours a day followed by rest and refreshments and are looking to complete their journey by the end of September. 
 
Proceeds from the expedition, organised by <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=godrej&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Godrej</a> will go to IIMPACT, a NGO specialised in the education of a girl-child. If you wish to contribute to the campaign, click<a href="https://www.fueladream.com/home/campaign/275"> here.</a> 
 
Image credit: Cyclists for Change

To raise 50 lakhs for girl child education, these two cyclists are cycling from Kanyakumari to
Khardung-la

(Eight year old Divya, with her mother Krishna) 
 
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=india">India</a> is a land of people living below the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=poverty+line">poverty lin</a>e and the easiest shelter for a homeless man with mouths to feed is living under the bridge on the railway tracks. 
 
Fortunately for a poor family in <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=vadodara">Vadodara</a> living under a bridge, their lives were about to get a lot better. 
 
It all started when famous <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=australian">Australian</a> businessman, entrepreneur and aviator <keyword id="1150623" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Dick-Smith">Dick Smith</keyword> visited the country and was passing through <keyword id="6356811" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Vadodara">Vadodara</keyword> in a train three weeks back. 
 
 (The picture that Dick Smith took of the girl wearing her pink bracelet) 
 He noticed an eight-year old girl from a <keyword id="3180457" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="homeless-family">homeless family</keyword> playing near the railway tracks under the Shashtri Bridge wearing nothing but a pink bracelet. He immediately took a picture of the scene in front of him and also noted down the GPS position. 
 After he left <keyword id="3658" type="COUNTRY" weightage="80" keywordseo="India">India</keyword>, Smith handed over the photograph to an Australian couple on a tour of India for wildlife photography and asked if they would be interested in flying all the way to India, locating the girl and ensuring that they have a better accommodation and a bank account wherein Smith could regularly deposit money. 
 


	(Dick Smith showing the picture to <keyword id="3180456" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Chris-Bray">Chris Bray</keyword>)
 
 
Chris Bray and Jess Bray not only took up the challenge but managed to complete it in just three days and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/chrisbray.net/media_set?set=a.10153707310015115.1073741840.594645114&amp;type=3&amp;pnref=story">uploaded a photo essay documenting their journey on Facebook.</a> 
 
The couple flew into Vadodara on December 15 and started their quest to find one girl out of a country of 1.25 billion. Their only aid in this quest was that one photograph 
 
 

	(Chris Bray at the spot where the picture was taken) 
 
 
After reaching their hotel, the couple made their way to Shashtri bridge to the exact location as in Smith’s photo. But, it wasn’t as easy as they thought due to the language barrier and the fact that they couldn’t recognize any families present under the bridge at the time. 
 
Fortunately for them, they got in touch with Dr Dilip Chellani from M S University’s Department of Banking and Insurance who drove down all the way to the railway tracks to help the couple locate the girl. 
 
 

	(Chris Bray finally met the girl and showed her the photograph)

	 
	 
	After a lot of searching, they finally managed to locate the girl, who was still wearing her pink bracelet and met her family and learned that the girl’s name was Divya and she had two younger brothers, one was 7 years old and the other just 2 years old.
 
As it turns out, the family has been living under the bridge for 12 years and it was there that Divya was born too. Her father was a plasterer who would earn $4-$6 a day, which was not enough to afford even a slum house and hence they made the tracks their home. 
 


	(Divya with her family)
 
 
Dr Chellani asked the whole family to come to the bank that afternoon and when they did, the couple learnt more about the father, Naresh. Shy at first, he opened up in the course of the conversation and seemed like a genuine hardworking man who loved his family but wasn’t able to give them a life reeking of luxury. 
 
 

	(Chris showed them the picture of Dick Smith and his wife)
 
 
Chris and Jess then showed the family a photograph of Dick Smith and his wife and told them how he had seen the girl while passing through and sent them to find out if there was any way he could help the family. 
 
“It was a pretty special moment to be sitting there, as the messengers of such a generous, life-changing gift, and watching realisation dawn on this family that we wanted to pay rent for them to move into a house, help Divya get a good education, help the father earn a better wage to help them start to help themselves,” wrote Chris in his Facebook post. 
 
The next morning, they opened a bank account for the girl which could be accessed by Divya and her mother and where Smith could deposit money. The couple on their post deposited Rs 20,000 which could be used as rent money for three months. 
 


	(Dr Chellani inked up a contract for the family with Chris)
 
 
Then they inked up a formal contract with the help of Dr Chellani whre it was stated that the funding would be for a period of two years after which it would be reviewed and would be used for rent and furthering the girl’s education. A clause was also put in that the funding could be stopped if Divya wasn’t attending school regularly. Dr Chellani had the responsibility of overseeing whether the funds were being utilised correctly and if Divya was going to school everyday. 
 


	(Chris and Jess took the family shopping!)
 
 
After the formalities were done, Jess and Chris took the family out for shopping and bought several sets of clothes for the family, school supplies for Divya and work tools for her father, Naresh. 
 
Thanks to them and Dick Smith, Christmas came a little early for this smiling happy family. 
 
 
(Divya holding the photographj of Dick Smith and his wife as a gesture of gratitude with her mother Krishna and father Naresh and are flanked by Jess and Chris Bray on either side) 
 
To view the original photo-essay, click <a href="https://www.facebook.com/chrisbray.net/media_set?set=a.10153707310015115.1073741840.594645114&amp;type=3&amp;pnref=story">here</a>. 
 
Image credit: Chris Bray

This is how an Australian businessman and a couple changed the lives of eight year old Divya and her family living in Vadodara

<ul><li><keyword id="23599" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="cry">CRY</keyword>'s campaign is aimed at building awareness on the importance of India’s girls completing their secondary education and the positive correlation it can have on the inclusive socio-economic growth of the country.</li><li>The campaign has been launched in collaboration with <keyword id="10059988" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="lintas-live">Lintas Live</keyword>.</li><li>The campaign idea is rooted in the hard data from a recent McKinsey Gender Parity Study (2018) that clearly states that employment of girl child can add $770 billion to India’s GDP.</li></ul>CRY (<keyword id="6514873" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="child-rights-and-you">Child Rights and You</keyword>) launched a national campaign titled #PooriPadhaiDeshKiBhalai to build awareness on the importance of India’s girls completing their secondary education and the positive correlation it can have on the inclusive socio-economic growth of the country. The campaign has been launched in collaboration with Lintas Live and seeks to inspire India’s citizens to come together and pledge their support for the cause. As a part of this film, Lintas Live partnered with Absolute Productions to deliver this heartwarming film, set against the backdrop of rural heartland of the country, where the protagonist – a young girl – innocently leads a potential investor to hark upon the real investment potential of the country. The ‘Big Impact’ of investing in the idea of supporting every girl to complete her secondary education is validated by stark statistics recounted by an educationist who enumerates the long-term economic benefits that this could bring to the country. <div type="Youtube" id="BTAKHhHHdOw" title="CRY | #PooriPadhaiDeshKiBhalai" thumbUrl="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/BTAKHhHHdOw/mqdefault.jpg"></div> Speaking about the campaign, <keyword id="10055924" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="sarvesh-raikar">Sarvesh Raikar</keyword>, Creative Head, Lintas Live said, “Several films and PSAs around education, especially on girl-child education, have been done before. Our challenge was how do we make our message stand out? How do we shine a spotlight on the importance of completing secondary education? Which is why, we took the route of showing it as an investment and actually demonstrate the returns - with hard-hitting numbers. The fact that the campaign has been launched in March further made the theme sharper – as that's when investments are top of the mind for the country." Commenting on the initiative, <keyword id="1087789" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Puja-Marwaha">Puja Marwaha</keyword>, CEO, CRY said, “In the four decade-long journey of CRY, ensuring education for the girl-child – especially the ones living in remotest of places and within marginalised communities – has always been very close to our heart and at the top of our programme agenda on the ground.” “We do hope that the campaign #PooriPadhaiDeshKiBhalai, and the way the film captures the essence of the core issue of girl-child education with an imaginative articulation, will be able to mirror the largeness of our mission and purpose. The campaign intends to bring to light the importance of secondary education for the girls and table the positive potential that such investment will bring to the country’s socio-economic growth. We urge people from all walks of life to come forward, take note and support the cause,” Puja added. Speaking about the campaign, <keyword id="3345614" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Ameer-Ismail">Ameer Ismail</keyword>, President, Lintas Live said, “We are truly honoured to partner with CRY for promoting a true cause that impact lives and I am so proud of the team that has worked on this with passion. This campaign is a true reflection of our creative capabilities at Lintas Live with digital – first amplifications at the very heart of its execution.” The storytelling is simple, easy and straight from the heart, as the film aims to narrate one of the starkest socio-economic realities of the country. Keeping in mind the fact that around 38 per cent of girls in India, between 15 to 18 years, are out of school (RGI Census 2016 &amp; UDISE data 2016-17) and that the drop-out rates for girls increase dramatically from 4.30 per cent in primary schools to 17.01 per cent in secondary school (UDISE 2018-19), the film looks at secondary education of girls as the most potent of investments towards a brighter future and a robust economy. The campaign idea is rooted in the hard data from a recent McKinsey Gender Parity Study (2018) that clearly states that employment of girl child can add $770 billion to India’s GDP. The film concludes with a plea to invest in the future of the nation by investing in the secondary education of the girl child and help harness the economic strength of the nation’s latent potential.

CRY's latest campaign focuses on the importance of girls completing their secondary education and its direct correlation to the country's growth

In a country like India, where patriarchy and poverty still exists, the importance of education for girls is often lost on families from rural communities where money is tight and the male child is preferred and celebrated. 
 
However, Gurgaon based non-profit organization <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/This-NGO-isproviding-primary-education-for-girls-and-now-has-a-man-cycling-from-Mumbai-toDelhi-to-raise-awareness-for-it/articleshow/50091927.cms">IIMPACT</a> founded by IIM-A graduates is of the belief that the <keyword id="6366837" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="girl-child">girl child</keyword> shouldn’t be left behind either. 
 
And, in a bid to ensure girls from rural areas get access to free quality <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=primary+education">primary education</a>, <keyword id="1938562" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="IIMPACT">IIMPACT</keyword> has set up over 30 learning centres in over 11states aided by their donors and sponsors where approximately 45,000 girls have been educated till Class V. 
 
The good news is, they are not alone in their fight. 
 Helping them is Mumbai-based cyclist <keyword id="2610228" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Jasmeet-Singh-Gandhi">Jasmeet Singh Gandhi</keyword>, who <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=cycling">cycled</a> from Mumbai to Delhi crossing a distance of 1400 kms in under 10 days to raise awareness for this very cause under <keyword id="3175283" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Umeed-1000-Cyclothon">Umeed 1000 Cyclothon</keyword>. 
 
Last year, the 46-year old Microsoft employee cycled from Mumbai to Bangalore to raise funds for cancer patients. And, this year it is education of the girl child that he had on his mind. 
 
“The choice was a very clear one. I am surrounded by women at home. I see what they are capable of. To even think that by not educating our girls we’re denying the chance to let 50% of the population contribute to the nation is heartbreaking and disappointing, really,” Gandhi tells me, matter of factly. 
 
He goes on to add how he thinks that the saying ‘Behind every successful man is a woman’ is downright sexist. “I don’t think women are meant to stand behind. I take pride in saying that my wife is more educated and capable than me and she’s not just standing behind but everywhere. Women are heroes. It’s time we treat them like one,” he adds. 
 
When asked about the biggest challenge of cycling from Mumbai to Delhi and leaving his tyre-prints in four states, he laments on the lack of proper infrastructure for cyclists in the country. “It’s so easy for an accident to happen,” he states. 
 
When he started his journey on December 7, Gandhi had pledged to raise the money required for educating 1,000 girls, after he found out that it takes Rs 3,000 a year to educate one girl-child. 
 
Today on December 17, after the completion of his cycling odyssey, he learnt that his efforts managed to raise Rs 37 lakhs, way more than what he had aimed for. 
 
“It’s always good knowing you over-achieved, especially when you come from a corporate background” he tells me with a shy smile. 
 
Image credit: Iamin/DNA

You Searched For "girlchild education" and got 4 results

To raise 50 lakhs for girl child education, these two cyclists are cycling from Kanyakumari to Khardung-la

Poulomi Das

This is how an Australian businessman and a couple changed the lives of eight year old Divya and her family living in Vadodara

Poulomi Das

CRY's latest campaign focuses on the importance of girls completing their secondary education and its direct correlation to the country's growth

BI India Partner

Meet Jasmeet Singh Gandhi, the man who raised 37 lakhs for the education of girls by cycling 1400 kms from Mumbai to Delhi in 10 days

Poulomi Das

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