The book builds an understanding on the issue of girls’ education and empowerment in the backdrop of a broad geographic canvas of countries in South Asia. Using select education and gender-related indicators and qualitative data, it presents the status of girls’ education across these countries. It proceeds to explore the dominant structural, systemic, situational, and macro- and micro-level inter-related barriers to girls’ education. Country-specific situational issues like economic crises, political instability, natural disasters, and conflict that impact girls’ lives and education are underscored for contextual understanding. Within this landscape, the impact of COVID-19 on girls’ education has also been discussed. The book’s uniqueness lies in its approach to linking praxis with theory by distilling the fundamental principles and assumptions underlying the strategies, using these for theorizing and generating discourse in the field. The attempts to theorize are multidisciplinary in nature as they draw from the disciplines of Sociology, Psychology, Education, Development Studies, Conflict Studies, and Gender Studies.

This book would be useful to the students, researchers, and teachers working in the fields of Education, Development Studies, Gender Studies, Social Work, Sociology, and Psychology. It would also be an invaluable companion to policymakers and professionals from government and non-government organizations working in the fields of Education, Social Development, and Gender.