In Marsavalli village in Maharashtra’s Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar district, an 86-year-old woman recently sat on a wooden bench in a classroom, holding a pencil with careful attention, as she attempted a literacy test under the ULLAS Nav Bharat Saaksharta Karyakram.

Her name is Anusuya Bai Wadekar, and her presence in that room carried the weight of an unfinished beginning that dates back nearly a century.

She was born in a time when schooling for girls in rural India was often treated as unnecessary. 

Books and classrooms existed at a distance from her childhood. Life moved swiftly into labour, household........

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