Her hair neatly tied back in a bun, the lipstick bright red on her lips, Usha is talking about a typical day in her life. For the single mother of four, Sunday or Monday makes no difference to her routine: Up before dawn, cook and pack school lunch for the kids, a quick bath and then off to work at the first of the four houses where she cleans and cooks. By 3 pm, she’s done and there’s time enough to buy vegetables and daily provisions on her way back home to eat a late lunch and get the dinner going.

I ask her if the kids chip in with the housework. “This is their time to study,” she says emphatically. “I want them to be able to become something.” The eldest, a girl, is in the 12th standard. Next year, she says, she will be in college. For her daughter, she wants what she couldn’t get, a career with a job in an office where she will be respected.

Aspirational India gives cause for hope. The ASER (annual status of education report) released earlier this year lists the reasons why. Fears that the pandemic would disrupt learning proved to be unfounded. And despite one of the world’s longest school closures, learning outcomes improved measurably. Government schools, at least in rural India, have shown the most improvement with almost every child in school, and girls surging ahead of boys in such skills as ability to read.

Driving a large part of this change is a new generation of mothers who want a better life for their daughters, says Rukmini Banerjee, chief executive officer, Pratham Education Foundation that conducts ASER.

The ASER survey registered a significant drop in unschooled mothers, from 47% to 29% in eight years. These are the unsung heroes heralding and hoping for their daughters to thrive. They now demand higher standards from schools........

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