Survivor Series: I would have been married off to someone against my will after 10th grade

My name is Ragini Kumari and I am a 15-year-old grade 10 student studying in Hasouli Kothi Girl’s High School, Samastipur, Bihar.

My mother, Diney Ray, is a labourer. The already existing financial crisis added with the COVID-19 pandemic affected my family badly. We lost many of our loved ones to deaths in the crisis. In the midst of this hopelessness, Quest Alliance had introduced the STEM For Girls programme in my school.

IBM STEM for Girls is a digital fluency and life skills curriculum designed to help girls in government secondary schools like mine break gender stereotypes and explore the possibilities of STEM-enabled career

My life would have otherwise followed a trajectory predetermined by my community. After 10th grade, I would have been married off to someone against my will if I had studied arts.

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However, I was able to escape my fate and work on my passion for medicine and become a doctor in the future. Thanks to the introduction of STEM along with the opportunities it provided. It gave me an awareness of my own identity as a person and gave me an opportunity to dream.

Through my experience, I realised the gender stereotype problem which exists in the community. I now pass my confidence I gained from the program to other young children in my community.

I teach the students life skills, 21st-century skills and I motivate them to dream big. I explain how to face a problem, understand it, how to overcome it and find solutions.

Now after continually participating in the STEM For Girls program, my parents support my dream of becoming a doctor. The program has been able to change the mindsets of children and parents alike. I can now make conscious choices in order to make progress towards my dream.