Chapter 3 : JalCoat
After one hours journey from Udgeer we reached Jalcoat where in a small Aganwadi premise some 20 girls were trained by a qualified nurse and aganwadi instructor . The topics of training were much too bold even for girls of metropolitan city , I am sure that many of those things even a college going girl in Mumbai would not know which unicef is trying to teach to school students of villages. After welcome and introduction note Zia Didi thrown open the stage to girls and asked them what all they have learned , answers came quickly..About correct age of marriage , equality of gender , equality in the property of father… the correct age of pregnancy ..importance of education .. importance of sanitation . I have been in villages for 16 years but never seen village girls speaking so boldly and openly about these issues , if this is the impact of a 10 day training then I wonder what will a month long training do to these girls. Nakeeran sir asked from each girl as what does she want to become , in response we got very common answers of becoming teacher , nurse and police officer ,this shows the kind of exposure these girls are having for them there is no other profession exist outside this , consider why they want to become nurse and not doctor .. teacher and not principal..police officer and not IAS , reason is simple they don’t have any awareness whatsoever about different career options. Nakeeran also gave example of asking same question to a 4 year old boy in Delhi and in response he has been told by the boy that he wants to become an astronaut , this is the difference which proper exposure and general awareness about surrounding can make where children in cities dreaming to become astronaut , Software tycoons , IAS IPS officers , Engineers , doctors there the counterparts in villages are not even aware that such career exists.
Nakeeran insisted that girls should read newspaper daily so that they are aware of the things going on in the local and global level. Zia Didi also talked to girls and chalked out a quick plan as how these girls should not keep the knowledge to themselves and make sure that they spread words of wisdom to their friends in villages , how they should go about convincing and using local authorities and reputed people. Myself and Avdhut were also asked to say something , Avdhut gave a short introduction of ours and stated the purpose why we were travelling with UNICEF.
I chatted with girls for some time insisted that whatever they have decided they should do , at any cost they should not let their dream go . They must increase their physical and mental level to attain the goal which they have set for them , Whether goal is achieved at the end of the day or not is a secondary issue but they would surely gain a lot in the process. We sat for some more time and discussed problems and expectations and then we finale started back for home.
Till the time we reached Latur everyone was very tired , it was exactly 12 hours from 9 AM to 9 PM . Nakeeran sir said that next day we should meet district CEO to get more clarity on the project which we are supposed to work .Zia mentioned that tomorrow morning we can go and see the room which she has arranged for us but today we have to sleep in office only , the only problem which I was worried about is mattress , in winter it is difficult for me to sleep on floor without mattress but then there was no choice but to take the call.
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