Why Rajasthan?

Rajasthan is a state in India known as one of the worst places to be born female. Women and girls often cannot make even the most fundamental decisions about their own lives.

The enormous struggles that women and girls face begin even before birth.

The ratio of 888 females to 1,000 males reflects ingrained gender-based bias and violence that manifests in sex-selective abortions and female infanticide.

Women and girls in Rajasthan face steep barriers to progress: 16% finish secondary school, 57% are illiterate, and 19 is the average age of marriage.

As girls grow up, they continue to face steep educational, cultural, physical and economic barriers to progress. Few finish secondary school and in rural areas a full two-thirds of women are illiterate. In addition to marrying young, most have no say in whom they marry or where they live.

Once married, they often are isolated living with their in-laws, without access to support from friends and family. In a country where one in three women is subject to domestic violence, Rajasthani women frequently suffer physical, sexual, and/or psychological abuse.

Most Rajasthani women do not work outside the home, and are financially dependent on their husbands.