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Women leave after attending Aajibaichi Shaala (Grandmothers' School) in Fangane village, India, February 20, 2017. 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. India's literacy rate grew to 74 percent 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 percent of women were found to be literate, compared with 82 percent of men, according to the 2011 report. Education experts and researchers have cited outdated attitudes toward women, including a preference for male children over females, and child marriages as main reasons for the lower female literacy rate.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. (Photo by Danish Siddiqui/Reuters)
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