It is a common fact in India that the burden of poverty falls particularly heavily on girls. If parents cannot afford to send all their children to school, it's the girls who usually lose out. There is some degree of government intervention in terms of primary and secondary schooling. However, for girls from poor families who somehow manage to pass Class Ten (equivalent to GCSEs), there are almost no opportunities for them to study further. The Udayan Shalini Scholarship Programme seeks to address this issue by identifying bright ambitious girls from extremely poor families. These girls are put through a structured academic programme integrated with a financial incentive package, which enables them to achieve a degree, sometimes even a post graduate degree. The programme also includes mentoring and personality development to help them fit in with their peers in college. This is an innovative mode, which has been thought through and implemented by Dr. Kiran Modi the founder of Udayan Care. Kiran herself comes from a well to do background, but tragedy struck when her 17 year old son studying in the US met with an accident and died. When his personal effects were sent back to India, she found among his papers, a receipt from a charity in India which showed that he was supporting the education of a girl along with a note saying that he was lucky to be getting a good education but wanted to do the same for someone who could not afford it. He was doing this with his pocket money and without the knowledge of his family. For Kiran, who was till then a society lady, it was an eye opener and in 1994 she set up her first orphanage. Then, in 2001, she established the scholarship scheme for girls to study beyond Class Ten. She currently runs 9 orphanages with three more in the pipeline and runs the scholarship programme for over 800 girls. 150 girls are in Class 11 and 12 (AS and A2 level) studying various subjects like Maths, Physics, computer sciences, commerce and social sciences. A further 100 are in undergraduate courses, studying Maths, computer sciences, commerce and social sciences. Nine of the girls are studying post graduate courses in Management, Medicine, engineering and computer sciences.