Development Bond Threw Open Doors of Education to Marginalized Girl Students in Rajasthan

Mumbai: Indian girls, especially from the marginal community is always much likely to stay deprived from the basic rights of education. Emphasizing on this aspect, a new funding model was formed by UBS Optimus Foundation, a grant-making foundation of the Swiss bank, for development programs, focusing to help marginalized girls from Rajasthan.

Reports are that the funds are invested to programs by charity Educate Girls in rural Rajasthan; however, the amount of investment is not yet known. The program, to bring back girls to classroom, was undertaken by a group of private investors.

The investment, termed as ‘world's first development impact bond’ provides ‘upfront’ funding from private investors, who earn a return from donors or governments if targets are achieved. However, one condition was imposed in all these- the interest of the invested amount will increase up to 15 percent once the children’s learning targets are met.

“While this is designed to improve the quality of girls' education in Rajasthan, the concept could be attractive to funders across a range of issues who want to make investments with both financial and social returns,” chief executive at the Children's Investment Fund Foundation, Kate Humpton, said.

While some have seen the investment as a positive move and will welcome similar moves, it was also said by many that the model of investment can be tricky, confusing the government in order to provide citizens with basic services.

India has established the Right to Education Act in 2009, for giving free access to education to children up to the age of 14. But it has declined funding of such programs two years back.

The aim for the development bond is to facilitate education for more than 15,000 children in 140 villages of Bhilwara district of Rajasthan. Also, girl students enrolled in primary education and their progress in subjects like English, Hindi and mathematics are being measured, reports said. The program, by now, has achieved 23 percent of its target for learning progress.