Inside India: School for grandmothers

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  Kamal Keshavtupange, 60, who studies at Aajibaichi Shaala school drinks tea inside her house in Fangane village.

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  A woman holds a book as she attends a class at Aajibaichi Shaala.

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  Uma Sitaramtupange, 65, who studies at Aajibaichi Shaala (Grandmothers' School), holds a baby outside her house in Fangane village.

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  Sheetal Prakash More (R), a 30-year-old teacher, teaches at Aajibaichi Shaala.

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  Drupada Pandurangkedar, 70, who studies at Aajibaichi Shaala, serves her granddaughter Namita Thackrey lunch inside their house in Fangane village.

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  Kantabai More (R), 65, helps her classmate Anusuya Kokedar (3rd L), 65, as she writes on a slate.

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  Indu Pawar, 61, who studies at Aajibaichi Shaala (Grandmothers' School), watches television inside her house in Fangane village.

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  Drupada Pandurangkedar, 70, who studies at Aajibaichi Shaala, poses for a photograph outside her house.

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  Sheetal Prakash More (R), a 30-year-old teacher, helps Janabai Kedar, 74, as she writes on a slate at Aajibaichi Shaala.

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  Vanita Dhau, 65, who studies at Aajibaichi Shaala, works inside her house in Fangane village.

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  Women attend a class at Aajibaichi Shaala.

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  Kamal Keshavtupange, 60, who studies at Aajibaichi Shaala, lights fire as she cooks food on a stove inside her house.

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  Vanita Dhau, 65, who studies at Aajibaichi Shaala, stands inside her home in Fangane village.

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Aajibaichi Shaala is not your ordinary school in India. The students at “grandmothers’ school” in the village of Fangane are elderly women who are getting the chance to learn to read.

“I love going to school,” said Kamal Keshavtupange, 60, as she washed clothes outside her home in the village, 120km east of the financial capital, Mumbai. India’s literacy rate grew to 74 per cent in the decade to 2011, according to the latest census, but female literacy continued to lag the rate for males by a wide margin.

About 65 per cent of women were found to be literate, compared with 82 per cent of men, according to the 2011 report. Education experts and researchers say outdated attitudes toward women – including a preference for male children over females – and child marriages as the main reasons for lower female literacy rate.

At Aajibaichi, afternoon classes in the one-room school are held six days a week for two hours. The lessons are timed so the women can finish their chores, or their work in the fields, before attending class. One of the few requirements is that all students are at least 60 years old.

“My knees hurt, so I can’t sit on the floor for long. That’s the only problem. But I still go every day,” said Kamal. Wearing the school uniform of pink saris, the women walk each afternoon along dusty village paths to their lessons.

“First I finish all my house work, then I go to school. It’s good we have this in our village,” said 70-year-old Drupada Pandurangkedar. Her eight-year-old granddaughter studies in the government primary school in Fangane.

The women begin class with a prayer and then dive into their lessons, writing on slates to practice. The school uses teaching aids such as the alphabet painted on tiles big enough to be read by students with poor eyesight. Many of the aids are made by the students.

Sheetal Prakash More, their 30-year-old teacher, said she would like to see women in other villages get the same access to education. “Every other teacher teaches children. Only I have the opportunity to teach elderly women,” said More. “It’s a great opportunity and I am very happy to teach them.”

Photography by Danish Siddiqui for Reuters