India has a massive education gap.The adult literacy rate in rural areas for females is 50.6% whereas for males is 74.1%. This is because a whole generation of girls, (23 million) drop out of school every year due to periods. The crisis reached its peak during the pandemic. With schools shut, more girls were estimated to drop out and never return.

STRESS TEST OF 3 DECADES OF PURPOSE:

Whisper has been driving its purpose to empower girls by providing period education & donating pads through its school program since 1995. To date, they have worked with over 40,000 schools to educated over 25 million girls, with ambitious plans to educate another 50 million by 2022. But the pandemic put a stop on everything. Three decades of work was on the line.

HOW COULD WHISPER PREVENT MILLIONS OF GIRLS FROM DROPPING OUT OF SCHOOL FOREVER, WHEN SCHOOLS WERE CLOSED?

As schools shut down, urban India adapted to online education. But rural India, had no access to either technology or education.

Economic Barriers – On an average it costs around 400 USD to access online education. While average surplus income in rural India is about 18 USD.

Technology Barriers: Most educational content is designed to run on expensive smart phones. While the masses in India (400 million feature phones users) still using basic feature phones that couldn’t support such high tech educational apps.

Language Barriers – Most educational content is available only in English. While only 12% of Indians speak English.

If girls couldn’t go to school, we had to bring the school to them.

During lockdown, with ground breaking agility of 2 weeks from idea to execution, Whisper launched Mobileshaala.

Mobile + Shaala Translation: Mobile Classroom.

A phone-based learning education platform that broke all barriers coming in the way education for underprivileged girls.

We created a platform that provided low tech content accessible on the most basic feature phones. Educational content was available in 6 languages and counting. And anyone could enroll for free.

We were aware that it was impossible for girls to go to school but, technology could come to our rescue. But technology, which is meant to bridge the divide, itself is divided in India. Online education in India is a privilege of a select few only – accessible only through expensive smart phones, for a huge fee with only English content.

We were talking underprivileged girls, whose parents had only 18 USD to spend on discretionary expenses while online education on an average costed 400 USD. So we provided education for free.

We were talking to girls, who weren't comfortable with English (since only 12% of Indians speak English), while most educational content is available only in English. We made educational content available in key regional languages.

We were talking to girls who only had access to basic feature phones. So we created content that could run on any device.

We used Whatsapp, India’s most widely used messaging platform to spread the word. We not only ran a conventional TV and Radio campaigns, but also collborated with NGO (non-governmental organisations) and even roped in India’s police network.

Touchpoints: Influencers, College WhatsApp communities

Going beyond social, we engaged with colleges & Parenting WhatsApp communities pan India reaching over 5000 students and mothers.

Over 5 Million girls educated via our online education program.

Whisper forged a long-term partnership with UNESCO to educate a further +18M more.

Whisper as the key knowledge partner and curriculum integration on period & puberty education in National School Board books.

Whisper business in Offline partner grew 105 Index vs. Year Ago (YA) when the rest of the category declined at 82 Index vs. YA during COVID lockdown.

Importantly, as India closes again for the second phase of lockdown, Whisper's efforts are continuing to make a difference.