The Saga of an Indian Malala

We always think of the NGO when it comes to helping hands for society but there are few individuals too who wants to improve the condition of their society they live in. And generally woman are not the part of the list but, she can also be one man army.

Pushpa Sagar, 24 years old is one of them. Providing education to the dispossessed section, she can be called as Indian Malala. Pushpa Sagar who looks like a common girl is doing something very uncommon as per her condition. Twenty-four years old, she is the oldest unmarried girl of her village. Pushpa is alone torch-bearer for girls’ education in Rama village of Rajasthan. Despite her detractors, however, this courageous lass isn't about to let anyone put out her fire.

Pushpa is a final year BA student, who hails from a family of five girls and two boys. She has a dream, a dream to see every girl in her village being educated. When we hear such stories, the question which strikes in our mind is, ‘what drives Pushpa to pursue this courageous social work’?

While taking to media, she said, "My eldest sister married a man without a steady job. When I see her work odd jobs to make ends meet for her family, it breaks me," Pushpa reveals. "Had she gone to school and been given a proper education, she would have been able to get a respectable job." Apart from providing education to the girls, Pushpa also works as a full-time banker in her village.

Pushpa has been born and brought up in a community where the education has always put on the back burner, but she strongly believes that if right of Primary Education is given to the girls, the social, mental and Physical condition of girls can be improved. To do the same, Pushpa joined Educate Girls, an NGO, which leverages existing community and government resources for girls' education.

Over the last three years, she has successfully enrolled 20 girls into the village school. The task is not as easy, as it seems. One of the major challenges is to convince the parents to send their daughters to the school. The biggest task is to convince them. They firmly believe that a girl has to look after the home task even after education, so why not without education. "Many families keep their daughters at home so that the mothers can work odd jobs outside the home to earn a little extra money," says Pushpa. "They believe that an education is a futile waste of time, and some are outraged at the very idea of their daughters studying and playing with boys in school."

While sharing a story, Pushpa said, “Sometimes the child is so excited to come to school that the parents agree, but after I've left the house it is a whole different story. Kiki, a student was 10 when Pushpa when she started visiting her home. I would go their several times a week but with an alcoholic husband to deal with, Kiki's mother couldn't have been bothered about her education. Both her parents were adamant on making her work with them at the nearby masonry site, instead. After three years of perseverance, Kiki is finally in the full-time Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya”. But the volunteer's job goes beyond enrolling girls in school. She also works with Educate Girls to develop and implement Creative Learning Techniques in the school, apart from the regular curriculum. "If girls find school fun, they will want to come a day after day, and there will be fewer drop-outs," she reasons. "If it's boring and tiresome, they would prefer doing chores at home." While singing off, Pushpa said, “I would not have done this without my father’s support. My father was with me, even after I failed in 10th class. My mother, on the other hand, was against me.”