How Milaan Foundation is shaping future leaders by empowering change from within

Seventeen years ago, four Delhi University students—Dhirendra Pratap Singh, Sharadindu Goswami, Irengbam Debashish Singh, and Annie Gupta—decided to address two major issues affecting rural communities in Uttar Pradesh—the lack of access to education and high prevalence of child marriages among girls. 

The organisation’s work began when Dhirendra discovered that his home in Sitapur, Uttar Pradesh, had no school within a 15 km radius. 

In 2007, this realisation led to the creation of Milaan Foundation, an NGO working towards reducing gender inequality, enhancing life skills, and creating sustainable opportunities for marginalised youth, especially young girls, through education, leadership training, and social advocacy. 

Today, the same village in Sitapur is home to a K-12 residential school, which educates over 700 first-generation learners every year. 

In 2020, a hostel was opened as part of Swarachna, Milaan’s school programme, which has transformed into a space of safety, learning, and solidarity for girls as young as 3.5 and as old as 18. 

The hostel is home to 120 girls, most of whom have either lost their parents(s) to Covid-19, or whose families have been rendered unemployed after the pandemic.

Tackling girl’s education

When team Milaan started the school in Sitapur, it realised that while almost all girls in the region were getting enrolled, they started dropping off by Class 5, and by Class 8, most of them had stopped coming. 

“When we went back to the community to find out why this was happening, we learnt three things—one, the parents held little to no value in education, two, child marriages were rampant in this area, and three, when the girls started menstruating, they often couldn’t leave home all that much owing to the stigma surrounding menstruation,” says Rati Misra, Executive Director, Milaan Foundation. 

“And even if girls braved this and continued school, every month, they would take at least a week off when they got their periods,” she adds.

This led the team to take accountability for transforming mindsets within the community by training adolescent girls to become grassroots level leaders who would catalyse change.

In 2015, they started ‘The Girl Icon’ programme, which takes into account the psychological, sociological, and biological changes that girels in this age group go through and helps them make sound decisions about their future by offering support at every level.

The Girl Icon programme is based on a three-phase selection process, starting with a video submission followed by group discussions and personal interviews. The girls who emerge as leaders then engage their peers through social action projects, tackling issues such as child marriage, health education, and the rights of women. The girls design these projects with the goal of involving at least 100 community members, creating grassroots change.

Eighteen-year-old Akshara Sharma from Sehore, Madhya Pradesh, is set to take up her role as a Girl Icon in her village after she was selected as the unanimous holder of that position this year. 

Despite poverty, Sharma’s family always supported her to complete her education, and even shifted her to an English-medium school 15 km from their house for Classes 10-12 so that she could continue learning in English. quality education. 

Sharma, who is now preparing for NEET, says the local ASHA workers, and at times, even her mother, accompanies her to convince families to send their girls to school.

“The new English medium school I enrolled in from Classes 10-12, was very disapproving of someone like me joining them, as they felt that my rural background and class status would affect their reputation,” says Sharma. 

“I proved how the will to learn transcends all these boundaries by emerging school first in my Class 12 public exams. It made me feel that for every other girl in my village, their potential just needed to be tapped,” she adds.. 

The Girl Icon programme’s peer-led model ensures that knowledge spreads organically, creating a network of empowered girls advocating for education, health, and equality.

One Girl Icon, for instance, successfully negotiated with local authorities to introduce a school bus service for her village, significantly increasing attendance. Another raised awareness about child marriage through street plays, directly influencing community attitudes.

Since its inception, the Girl Icon programme alone has reached over 60,000 girls, with participants across Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Karnataka. Graduates of the programme frequently become advocates within their communities, creating a ripple effect. 

“Our girls have not only delayed marriages, but also inspired others to pursue education and challenge gender stereotypes,” says Misra.

The team also eventually involves male figures in the family, including fathers and brothers, in the dialogue process to make these changes sustainable for the girls by garnering support from their families and changing their mindsets.

When 23-year-old Preeti from Azamgarh district in Uttar Pradesh became a Girl Icon with Milaan and had to leave to Lucknow as a 17-year-old for training, her father stood against this decision. It was only the second time around when another training came up In Banaras that her father agreed to let her go, after getting in touch with and having detailed conversations with the Milaan team.

“In our village, people get easily influenced by what others around them do. Girls grow up to become farm hands and their education comes to a halt. Taking me as an example, I wanted more parents to send their daughters out into the world to explore their interests and create futures of their choice,” says Preeti.

Unmukt Programme

Another programme at Milaan, titled ‘Unmukt’, uses sports as a medium, among other things, to engage boys and girls in discussions on gender equality, life skills, and leadership. Designed to foster an inclusive environment, Unmukt trains adolescents to make informed decisions and challenge societal norms.

“We work with our 3,600 boys and girls in each cohort in this programme, which is supported by the Rohini Nilekani Philanthropies and other organisations who fund our work regularly,” says Misra. 

“This programme has an element of sports, but there’s also a life skills training to equip our children and youth to be able to make informed decisions on matters that impact their lives,” she adds.

Mishra notes that community buy-in has been critical. “By involving parents and conducting awareness sessions with men and boys, we create a more enabling environment for change,” she says.

The Covid-19 pandemic exacerbated vulnerabilities for many girls. Milaan’s response included providing resources to affected families and leveraging its Girl Icon network to identify community needs. The foundation also introduced scholarships for job-oriented courses in fields like nursing and law, encouraging girls to pursue higher education.

Misra acknowledges that while they have made progress, the pandemic set back their efforts to create gender equality by decades, with much of their work now focussed on regaining this lost ground.

“Since most of our girls did not have smartphones and laptops, our teachers visited their homes during the pandemic to ensure they were not married off and continued learning where they left. We have also tied up with primary health centres to offer routine medical checkups for our girls at Swarachana and have an in-house counsellor to address their mental health challenges,” says Javed Abbas, Associate Director of Programmes. 

The foundation plans to expand its programmes, aiming to reach 100,000 girls within the next five years.

Milaan is also refining its strategies by concentrating efforts in fewer districts for deeper impact. Its ongoing research and collaborations with philanthropic organisations like the Gates Foundation further enhance its reach and effectiveness.