These students are primarily from very poor families, the children of labourers and marginalised communities.
At the Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV) in Barachetti, Gaya District, the students are from among the most economically backward in the area. Their parents are marginal cultivators, woodcutters, or ‘stone-breakers’, eking out an existence. Most of these girls are first generation literates.
Sheela Kumari’s father Dhaneshwar Ravidas and mother Bimala Devi work at a stone-crushing outfit, breaking stones into gravel by hand. She entered the KGBV in 2007, in the fifth grade. The next year, she was introduced to karate, and she took a liking to it. On the 4th June this shy twelve year old participated in the SMA cup Open Championship in Singapore. She was one of a team of 6 girls chosen from government schools running the Karate programme.
The Singapore trip was beyond Sheela’s wildest dreams. In fact, the thought that their daughter was being sent to another country struck near terror into her parents. They were afraid, and it was only after a lot of persuasion from her teachers that they gave their consent. “I was afraid too, but my teachers said it would be all right. When I returned, my parents were very happy to see me back, and the people in my village asked me a lot of questions. Nobody had ever climbed onto a plane, and so for some time everybody wanted to ask me questions.”
[I'll post more of this soon on my other blog, 'Frank Opinons']
3 comments:
once a friend called Samson tried to how showing diff forms of attacks from the karate school. Then I told him that this would not work in Bihar. The so called goofy looking naxalite would simply huch a bumb on him before he could make one karate move.....ee cheez yaya nahi chalbay boss.
The point is, Allen, about the empowerment of thousands of girls through a unique programme, that perhaps Private schools could emulate! The story is that a daughter of a common labourer went to take part in a meet abroad, and there are about 22 such girls in Bihar.
Great reading your bllog
Post a Comment