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Compassion and Technology Brighten the Future for Indian Girls

Education has not been a priority for girls in India, but interested organizations and people have focused on teaching girls information technology as a route to a more productive future

Gopal Kapur is founder and CEO of the Center for Project Management -- now run by his son Raj -- as well as an author and popular speaker. I first met Gopal in 1997 when he gave a luncheon speech at the Government Technology Conference in Sacramento, Calif. His wit and good sense made him one of my favorite speakers, and last fall, I sat in on a project management workshop he gave a Government Technology conference in Atlanta.

After the workshop, I saw him visiting the vendor booths at the conference, scooping up free stuff and dropping it into a large shopping bag. I joked with him about his "haul" and discovered he was leaving that afternoon for India to spend three months helping an orphanage for girls. The pens that light up, balls that flash when bounced, and other gimmicks were prized by the girls, he said, as nobody else in school had them.

Gopal and his wife Darlene have been doing this for nearly a decade. Nine years ago, Gopal and his wife were visiting his father in his hometown in India. His father was preparing to deliver some food to a nearby orphanage for girls, and so Gopal and Darlene decided to go as well.



In India, said Gopal, girls are at the bottom of the "totem pole," and orphan girls are not even on the map. Some of the girls were found wandering the streets; one was sleeping under a bench at the railway station.

The culture in India heavily favors boys. Boys can care for their parents in their old age, but girls require a large dowry and become part of their husband's family. This financial and social pressure is such that many Indian women will have an ultrasound during early pregnancy, and choose to abort female fetuses. This has become such a problem in India, that in Punjab the girl/boy ratio is 845:1,000 in case of illiterate mothers and even lower, (745:1,000), when the mothers are literate. The problem of abandoned girls is also growing.




This problem has been the subject of several articles in Government Technology International over the years. In addition, education has not been a priority for girls in India, but interested organizations and people have focused on teaching girls information technology as a route to a more productive future.

Darlene and Girls in the Computer Room
Kapur said that while the orphanage was poor, and the facilities in need of repair, the managers did not turn the children out in the street to beg or abuse them as others might. And so Kapur and his wife decided to do what they could to help. As it turns out, what they could do was considerable.

Since that trip nine years ago, Gopal and his wife spend three months each year visiting his father and helping out at the orphanage. Gopal combines his knowledge of Indian culture and life with a quick wit, and practical sense of reality. Plus, he's not afraid to pull rank if necessary. The girls were at first refused admission to two English-medium schools and the orphanage board of directors was resisting the idea of "that much change." But Gopal teaches at the JFK School



of Government at Harvard, and has had students from high up in the Indian government. He called up a few, said what he needed, and the barriers fell away overnight.

Gopal and Darlene pay for English instruction for the girls as well. A year ago they hired a teacher, who quit because teaching orphan girls was seen by her friends and relatives as very close to the job of a street sweeper. They found another teacher who offered to teach English for free, then hired her and required her to accept a good salary.

English is the door opener for the girls to many good-paying jobs, said Gopal. Call center work requires good verbal English skills and pronunciation, and the Kapurs have promised the teacher a very nice "surprise" if the girls can talk to them in clear English when they return late this year. Along with computer training, the plan is to ready some of the girls for good jobs in the IT industry.

Gopal and Darlene are rightfully proud of the girls. "For the last nine years," said Gopal, "when we visit the girls at the orphanage, none has ever asked to bring any material thing to them. The only thing they typically ask us is, "When will you come next, and can you come early and stay late."






Academic Awards
Gopal also said that most of the girls are working hard to do well in school. "Six have stood first, second, and third in their respective classes -- which has never happened before," he explained, "and three are now attending a college."




The Story of Isha
When Isha was very young, her father died and her mother could no longer support her. Isha was abandoned, and when she was brought to the orphanage, she was malnourished and was afflicted with strabismus (crossed eyes).







Isha at the Orphanage a Decade Ago

Today, not only has the orphanage been remodeled, repainted, and supplied with furniture and computers, but the girls have nice clothing. Girls who are too old to learn English and computers are taught dressmaking. The Kapurs paid for surgery to straighten Isha's eyes.






Isha Recently, in Clothing She Made Herself
Surely this is testimony that an individual or a family can make a difference in the lives of many, and provide inspiration for others to also take responsibility for those around them.


Wayne E. Hanson served as a writer and editor with e.Republic from 1989 to 2013, having worked for several business units including Government Technology magazine, the Center for Digital Government, Governing, and Digital Communities. Hanson was a juror from 1999 to 2004 with the Stockholm Challenge and Global Junior Challenge competitions in information technology and education.