My Education, My Right is a project empowering adolescent girls in government schools in the Ganjam district of Odisha to become the STEM leaders and changemakers of tomorrow. The project addresses school dropout rates, challenges deep-rooted gender stereotypes, and helps girls build coding skills and awareness of STEM careers, creating opportunities for those who have historically been pushed away from science, technology, engineering, and mathematics because of systemic barriers rather than personal choice. Building on the foundation of an earlier programme, STEM for Girls, implemented under a partnership with Quest Alliance and IBM, the project continues to challenge the norms that hold girls back and raise the number of young women confidently pursuing STEM pathways.
Funded by L’Oréal and implemented by Restless Development with VIEWS as the ground level implementing partner, the project works across 18 schools in Ganjam, a district where the project team has identified that approximately 70 percent of students show limited interest in education, a challenge linked to multiple factors including teaching methods, gender discrimination, school to home distance, menstruation related barriers, child labour, and child marriage.
The project aims to:
- Improve adolescent girls’ engagement with education by building interest and confidence across four key domains: STEM interest, critical thinking, STEM career awareness, and perseverance and problem-solving skills.
- Deploy Youth Facilitators, six in the current phase, each working across three schools, to deliver sessions and run STEM clubs with peer leaders in model schools.
- Enable peer-led learning through STEM clubs, where student peer leaders are capacitated to cascade knowledge and activities to their peers.
- Conduct ideathon and hackathon sessions to build students’ capacity to identify everyday challenges and work through solutions.
- Introduce an entrepreneurship module tailored to the local context, where interest in self-employment and independent business is high among young people.
- Strengthen social emotional learning, including communication, relationship building, and self awareness, among Youth Facilitators and students alike.
- Engage with parents through Parent-Teacher Meetings and special observation day celebrations to maintain community involvement.
- Reach a cumulative total of 3,500 unique girls over two years (2,000 in 2025 and 1,500 in 2026).
Our Impact
Where: Ganjam District, Odisha, India
Period: 2023 – ongoing
Partners: VIWS (ground implementing partner)
Donor: L’Oréal
