New India: 70% of teenage girls want to be graduate; 3 in 4 have career goals, finds survey

Mumbai, Dec 20: While the government and several activists and NGOs are trying to make girls' education an important part of the nation's life, the girls themselves have taken long strides towards achieving milestones in education. According to the findings of a new survey (http://110.173.177.163:8080/Nanhikali/teenagegirlsurvey/TAG-Report.pdf) conducted by 'Nanhi Kali', a project by Naandi Foundation that works with adolescent girls, seven out of 10 teenage girls in India eye completing of graduation while three in four have a specific career path in their mind. An even more hopeful a finding is that almost three in four do not want to get married before they attain the age of 21. It was seen that more girls in the urban areas aspired to complete their graduation, do paid job and marry late. IndiaSpend reported about these survey findings.

According to the survey, while 25 per cent of the girls said they want to complete post-graduation, 12 per cent is in favour of doing a professional degree. Seventy-four thousand girls in 28 states and seven cities across the country were covered under the survey. When asked about the career goals, while 33 per cent of the teenage girls said they would like to be a teacher, 11.5 per cent wanted to be tailors and 10.6 per cent doctors.

Under the survey, the teenage girls were asked questions on nine topics including education and health status, agency and empowerment inside and outside their homes, aspirations and basic life skills.