“I never thought that I would study until the 12th grade. I want to work in an Aanganwadi”, Mamta Mewada began with a smile. “I dropped out of school in 1997 when I was in the 8th grade”.
Mamta resides in Fanda village, on the outskirts of Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh. She was born in a conservative family where girls were never encouraged to study. To add to this, her family members believed that girls should get married very early and hence she was married when she was only 12 years old. “…But my husband was in the same school! Everyone in school used to tease me…whenever they saw us coming together to school or if he came to my class”, she said. Though she now narrates this incident with a smile, back then, she was a very shy person. Even though she had passed the 8th grade, her family decided to discontinue her studies as there were no girls in the 9th-grade classroom. “They were not ready to send me to a class which did not have any girls. Today, times have changed.”
After discontinuing school, Mamta spent her time doing the household chores and later learned to stitch. It was followed by taking up small stitching assignments and also some part-time jobs in the village. After a few years, she entered the role of a mother, and that is where the urge to complete education till the 10th grade occupied her mind!
“I faced difficulty in helping my children with their homework and felt bad that I was not able to help them on any subject, especially English”, she said. Hence, when she heard of Pratham’s Second Chance Program, she made up her mind to become a student again. Mamta decided to walk into a classroom after 18 long years! Moreover, she found out that the Math tutor in the program was a classmate of her husband. Hence, she believed in his feedback that this program would be useful to her.
Mamta was fortunate that her husband supported her decision to study further. However, her in-laws were not happy. “They expected me to do all the household chores, to which I assured them that I would complete everything but use the rest of the time for my studies”, she said. “My day used to start at 4 in the morning, and I used to complete all the household chores by afternoon. Despite this hectic schedule, I always was the first person to be present at the centre for classes” she said.
As the days progressed, she became more confident, and her interactions with the girls and women in the batch increased. There were many young girls in her class, and it was difficult to bond with them as fellow batch mates. But the aim of learning helped her overcome those difficulties. However, she admits that she learned a lot of things from them. “Girls these days are more confident, and they express themselves better! During my time, it was never possible. People like me should learn from them”, she said.
Mamta’s efforts paid off, and she topped her batch with a score of 65%. She continued her studies till the 12th grade as she had developed an aspiration to work at an Anganwadi. During these years she also counselled many other women in her village and neighbouring villages and inspired them to get back to studies and complete their 10th grade. As an acknowledgement of her services, she got a certificate from the Member of Parliament, Ms Najma Heptullah.
Women like Mamta are indeed an inspiration to many others around them!
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