Two years ago, pediatrician Rameshwar Prasad Yadav was driving to Churi, his village in Rajasthan, when he saw four girls standing by the road in the pouring rain.

His wife Tarawati offered them a lift. In the conversation that followed the couple learned that the girls went to a college in Kotputli, the closest town about 18km away, but their attendance was awfully low.

Though it doesn’t rain too often in this part of the country, the girls usually had to trudge 3 to 6km on a hot and dusty road — stones are mined in the area — before reaching the public bus stop. “The boys misbehave with us on the bus,” one student told them.Click Here: habitat tord boontje