Meet Gargi Jain: From ‘Madam Collector’ to ‘Collector Didi’, Helping Tribal Girls Stay in School

Chhota Udepur: When IAS officer Gargi Jain took charge as the Collector of Gujarat’s Chhota Udepur district in February 2025, she chose to step out of the traditional confines of her office and into classrooms.

Instead of waiting for students to approach her, Jain began visiting schools in the district’s tribal areas every week. Sitting alongside students on an ordinary plastic chair, she started conversations about their ambitions, fears, challenges and the pressures that often force girls to leave school early.

What began as informal interactions has now developed into ‘Collector in Classroom’, a mentoring initiative that has reached more than 750 girls across five Kanya Vidyalayas. Within a year, the dropout rate among girls in the district has reportedly fallen by nearly 60 per cent.

Today, many of the students no longer address her as “Madam Collector”. Instead, they affectionately call her “Collector Didi”.

Bringing the administration into the classroom

Chhota Udepur is one of Gujarat’s most tribal-dominated districts and is home largely to the Rathva community. Many girls in the region are the first in their families to attend school. However, financial difficulties, family responsibilities, early marriage and the absence of role models often lead to students discontinuing their education.

To address these challenges, Jain began regularly visiting schools and interacting directly with the girls.

Through the Collector in Classroom programme, she discusses much more than academics. The sessions focus on confidence-building, communication skills, career opportunities, life skills and awareness of legal rights.

Students are encouraged to ask questions about careers ranging from civil services and engineering to medicine and the police force.

Jain’s message to the girls is simple: their dreams are as important and achievable as anyone else’s.

Creating a space for open conversations

One of the most significant aspects of Jain’s classroom interactions is her emphasis on personal safety and speaking up about uncomfortable situations.

She shares a difficult experience from her own childhood to help students understand the importance of recognising unsafe behaviour and seeking help from trusted adults instead of remaining silent.

For many of the girls, these conversations are among the first opportunities they have had to openly discuss personal safety with a senior government official.

By creating an atmosphere of trust, the programme aims to make students feel heard, supported and more confident about continuing their education.

Dropout numbers show improvement

The impact of sustained outreach is also reflected in the district’s school attendance figures.

In 2025, nearly 9,000 children in Chhota Udepur had dropped out of school. By 2026, the number had reportedly declined to around 5,500, while nearly 4,500 students were brought back into classrooms.

Among girls, the dropout rate saw a particularly significant decline of nearly 60 per cent within a year. The improvement has been attributed to a combination of government schemes, school-level interventions and regular mentoring through the Collector in Classroom initiative.

A bigger dream for tribal girls

For Gargi Jain, however, reducing dropout numbers is only the beginning.

Her larger ambition is to see tribal girls from Chhota Udepur pursue careers that once seemed beyond their reach. She has expressed the hope that at least five girls from the district will one day become IAS officers.

The initiative highlights a different approach to public administration—one built not only around policies and official meetings, but also around listening.

In the classrooms of Chhota Udepur, a district collector sitting beside students has become a symbol of possibility. And for hundreds of tribal girls who now see their futures differently, “Madam Collector” has become something more familiar and encouraging:Collector Didi.