Sunita's Story
-Sunita is born in Orissa, the youngest of five. Like one in five girls in India, Sunita’s birth was not registered. Of those girls whose births are registered, only two in five possess their birth certificate.
-When she is five years old, Sunita is enrolled in primary school. Primary school enrolment is high in India. Only four percent of girls between the ages of 6 and 11 are not enrolled in primary school.
-Like one in every five Indian girls aged between 5 and 14 years, Sunita usually spends between 11 and 20 hours per week doing chores and other unpaid work for her family, leaving little time for homework. Sunita struggles to keep up with the rest of her class. Teacher absenteeism exacerbates her poor progress.
-Like 50% of Indian girls, Sunita enrolls in secondary school. But, as an Orissan girl of her income level, it is unlikely Sunita would continue with her education beyond a year or two at secondary school.
-When she is fourteen, Sunita drops out of school. Nearly 60% of Indian girls between the ages of 6 and 16 years drop out of school, although in some states the drop out rate is much higher. It is too expensive for Sunita’s family to keep her in school. In India, one in seven girls dropping out of school does so because it is too expensive.
-Sunita has only basic literacy, in a country where the average literacy rate among girls aged between 15 and 24 years is 64%. With just 11% of girls in Orissa enrolled in tertiary education, it is not surprising that Sunita doesn’t know any female university graduates to act as a role model. Across India, the tertiary education gross enrolment ratio for girls is under 10%.
-When she is 19 years old, Sunita gets married. Sunita is lucky compared to some girls, as one in eight girls in India is married before age 15.
-Soon after getting married, Sunita has her first child. Across India, one in eleven girls aged between 15-19 years has had a child.
-After the birth of her child Sunita returns to work as a seasonal farm laborer and spends her spare time doing household chores. Like nine out of every ten Indian young women aged between 20 and 24 years, Sunita doesn’t have a bank or savings account.
-Despite being paid a wage for her work, Sunita doesn’t get to decide how to spend the money she earns. This is common in India, where over 25% of young women aged between 20 and 24 years are not in control of the money that they earn.
-Frustrated that her laborer wages aren’t covering the costs of her growing family, Sunita would like to start a roadside tea business -- but she has no capital. Accessing loans and credit is difficult, and less than nine percent of women in the state of Orissa succeed. Across the country as a whole, just one in 24 young women aged between 20 and 24 years has access to loans and credit.
-Now at 23, after having her fourth child, Sunita is starting to use contraception with her husband. Only one in nearly eight young women between the ages of 20 and 24 years in India is using any type of contraception.
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