The Success Story of Girls’ Residential Schools ✒ Salil Saroj e.mail id: [email protected] In the immediate post-independence phase, as revealed from the perusal of the first four five-year plans, the establishment of hostels emerged as a strategy to improve the educational indicators among the socially and economically marginalised groups such as Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) largely through schemes under the Department of Social Welfare, Department of Tribal Welfare and Department of Women and Child Development. The rationale came not only from the need for covering the living costs and making it possible to have access to physical, residential space and food in order to be able access the schooling facilities but also from the need for providing a conducive environment for education where these children are not expected to participate in work and other chores. However, it was the Mahila Shikshan Kendra programme of Mahila Samakhya, a State sponsored women empowerment programme, and the initiatives from among the NGOs, particularly from the 1980s onwards, that brought residential schooling as an appropriate strategy for education and empowerment of girls and women from disadvantaged communities. Although there is no definite policy on residential schooling in general or for girls in particular, several residential schooling strategies exist for girls in the public school system in India. There also exist certain small-scale residential schooling strategies outside the State sector, funded either through public funds or other avenues. While a few of these have some inter-linkages, many have evolved independently of each A TO Z INDIA ● SEPTEMBER 2021 ● PAGE 6