CFTI Supports Rural Girls’ Education Through Safe School Mobility Initiative

Mumbai, January 23, 2026: Centre for Transforming India (CFTI) is highlighting the importance of safe and reliable school mobility for girls in rural and tribal areas through its initiative ‘Savitrichya Leki Chalalya Pudhe’, as India observes National Girl Child Day. The programme has supported underprivileged girl students across the country by providing 35,000 bicycles, complemented by self-defence training and community-level follow-ups.

The initiative focuses on addressing a key but often overlooked barrier to girls’ education: the challenge of reaching school safely. In many rural and hilly regions, limited or absent public transport means that students must walk long distances daily. Available data indicates that an estimated 10–15 percent of school-going children in India travel more than three kilometres each day, with adolescent girls disproportionately affected due to safety concerns, fatigue, and difficult terrain.

India has nearly 250 million school-going children, many of whom face long commutes in tribal, rural, and remote regions. According to UDISE+ 2022–23 data, over 40 percent of rural students travel more than one kilometre to attend school, while 15–20 percent in remote tribal areas walk over three kilometres, often navigating forests, rivers, or flood-prone routes. These conditions have contributed to higher dropout risks, particularly among adolescent girls. In Maharashtra, for instance, girls’ dropout rates have risen from 2.4 percent to 2.9 percent, driven by safety concerns, seasonal migration, and physical exhaustion.

By improving mobility, the Savitrichya Leki Chalalya Pudhe initiative aims to reduce these risks and ensure continuity in education. The provision of bicycles is designed to shorten travel time, improve safety, and support regular school attendance, while self-defence training and local monitoring help reinforce confidence and security for students.

Amit Deshpande, Chief Operating Officer, Centre for Transforming India (CFTI), said, “Girls’ education cannot be strengthened by enrollment alone; it requires us to remove the everyday barriers that quietly push girls out of the system. Through this initiative, we are addressing the challenge at its root, ensuring that distance, safety, and access no longer determine a girl’s future. When girls can reach school with dignity and confidence, education stops being fragile and starts becoming irreversible.”

As discussions around girls’ education increasingly move beyond enrolment numbers, CFTI’s work underscores the need to view access, safety, and dignity as essential conditions for learning. Ensuring that girls can commute to school without fear remains a critical step toward equitable and uninterrupted education outcomes in rural India.