Background. Education, no matter whether it is formal or informal, is one of the pillars of every society or civilization. In India, even if there is a tendency for turning out highly trained professionals in various fields, many people, especially poor children, do not have access to education. Reasons for this phenomenon are various. Many factors are providing children from education, as for instance lack of resources, poor quality of schools, or the need to contribute to the income of the family. Especially in rural areas, the number of children not having access to any or to proper education is striking. The literacy rate for rural India as a whole is 54%, the one for women even lower. This does have a severe impact on the cycle of poverty for many children and families, as there is a positive correlation between the literacy rate and a higher annual income. In rural areas, these connections seem to be culminating under the aspect that often there is a lack of access to education and resources, i.e. due to the long distances children have to travel in order to reach a school. Within this context, access to and proper basic education can be seen as an instrument to break the cycle of poverty and as a tool to rehabilitate especially disadvantaged and vulnerable children which will not only affect the children themselves but have a positive impact on the whole family in a long-term perspective.

Objective. The objective of this research is to examine the impact of basic education in the rural context of Gujarat on disadvantaged and vulnerable children and whether it can be used as a tool to rehabilitate them. The study then will not only be analyzing factors of school drop-outs in rural schools (public and private), but will also put them into the wider context of poverty within the Indian context and thus will try to create a link between poverty, education and the social, economical and cultural conditions of a child. It is thus tried to strengthen the importance of basic education in a rural environment as it is seen as a tool of poverty reduction.

Contact partner. The contact partner of this project is Rajesh Bhat as one of the heads of the Matrusmruti Trust (MST), located in Ahmedabad, India (http://www.theawarefoundation.com/). Matrusmruti Trust is a secular and impartial Public Charitable Trust and seeks to provide children of disadvantaged groups, irrespective of their background and religion, educational support so as to realize its vision of “an India enriched by just and equitable development achieved by appropriate and quality education for all in the twenty-first century”. It is managed by a small number of people, mostly development professionals who contribute to MST on a voluntary basis. A detailed description of the partner organization can be found on p. 10.

Empirical work. This project will be carried out by a Master’s student of University of Basel, Department of Environmental Sciences, Geography/Urban and Regional Studies. The documentation of results from this research will be the topic of her Master’s Thesis in Geography. Main part of this project will be an empirical study carried out in rural areas of Gujarat, India, with foreseen 200 to 250 questionnaires. It will be conducted in cooperation with the Matrusmruti Trust (MST), located in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. The student will thus be assisted by members of MST as well as being supported by local students in order to handle the relatively big sample of questionnaires. Thus, the Swiss Student will be able to carry out an own project in Social Science Studies and to gain knowledge and experience in terms of knowledge on various aspects related to development countries in general and poverty reduction within the Indian context in particular as well as in terms of practical knowledge such as empirical methods and analyses. For the Swiss Student, the knowledge gained will be an enormous profit which might be used both within the Master’s Studies but also for her professional career. In addition, the Indian partner organization MST and students assisting the data collection will be able to profit from new ideas and external views the Swiss student will bring in with her study.