A participatory action research project was launched in July 1996 and operationalised a year later in July 1997 in district RaeBareilly in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The guiding objective of the project is to strengthen the education of girls in India, by increasing their participation in primary education. This involves broadly an increase in enrollment, attendance, retention and achievement of girls in primary schools, i.e., classes 1 - 5. While there is a clear understanding and acceptance of the fact that there are several societal reasons for unequal participation of boys and girls in primary education, all over India and in Uttar Pradesh specifically, this project has chosen the school as its site of action, guided by previous research which highlights the fact that our classrooms are not very girl-friendly sites and are in some measure responsible for keeping girls out of school and failing to retain those who are enrolled for very long. This project attempts to work in participation with teachers to find ways of making our classrooms more attractive and empowering spaces for girls.