Nepali woman heads back to school — with her son

Parwati Sunar, 27, lives in a two-room house with a tin roof and unfinished bricks. She shares the home with her sons Resham (11) and Arjun (7) and her mother-in-law. Her husband works as a laborer in the southern Indian city of Chennai.

Since the house has neither running water nor a toilet, part of the family's morning ritual involves washing in front of the house at the water pump. An adjacent field serves as a spot for their toilet duties.

After dressing and eating a simple meal of rice and lentils, Sunar sets off for school with her eldest son Resham (right). The walk takes about 20 minutes. Resham has no problem walking to school together with his mother: "We chat as we walk to school and we learn from our conversation," the 11-year-old told the Reuters news agency.

Sunar is in seventh grade at the Punarbas village school in southwestern Nepal. It's fun to be in a class with her, said 14-year-old Bijay. "Didi is pleasant," he added, using the Nepali term for an elder sister. "I help her in studies and she helps me too."

"She is doing a good job," Shruti, who is in 10th grade, said of Sunar. "I think others should follow her and go to school." According to official figures, 94.4% of girls in Nepal attend elementary school, but nearly half drop out for reasons ranging from lack of textbooks to poverty. Sunar, however, wants to keep going.

After school, Sunar and her son take off their school uniforms, jump on their bike and ride together to the New World Vision Computer Institute, where they take a computer course — in preparation for a possible future office job.

"I enjoy learning and am proud to attend with classmates who are like my own children," said Sunar. She regrets dropping out of school as a teenager, and has given up her job as a housemaid in neighboring India in order focus full-time on her education — computer skills included.

Sunar's husband works as an unskilled laborer in Chennai, more than 2,000 kilometers (around 1,200 miles) away. He supports the family, but they rarely see each other. Video calls are often the only way to keep in touch. The family belongs to the Dalit community — the lowest Hindu caste of the "untouchables."

In the evening, Sunar sits in front of her small brick house. What will she do after her schooling is complete? She doesn't know yet. At the moment, her only thought is to finish school, she said. But she hopes that she isn't the only one and that other women in rural Nepal will follow her example.