It’s not easy to fight against the patriarchal belief of society. The deeply enrooted gender work ethics that mould our conscience is the prime cause of gender-based discrimination. And whoever tries to change its flow is condemned as anti-social and iconoclast.
One such story is about Subhadra Mohanty who acted beyond the boundaries of genders stereotypes. Responsibility is the phase of time, that comes early to some and for some, it comes late. The 21 years old girl in a very tender age understood the need for time. She just completed her graduation in Arts from MHD Mahavidyalaya at Chattia last year and handled the affairs of her family-owned 2 acres of agricultural land and other activities.
She lives with her parents, Ajay Kumar Mohanty, Manjulata and a younger brother. Ajay Kumar who is a farmer used to grow paddy and vegetables, collect milk from nearby, supply it to milk companies and operate rice hullers. However, the desire to have an engineer in the family drove him to borrow a loan of Rs 50,000 from some local money lander in 2015. But, the strain boomed when he could not repay the amount due to crop loss and other personal hitches. Subsequently, the dark period had followed them and the overall income of the family came to standstill. Taking the strain on her shoulders, Subhadra decided to anchor the family out of the crunch and repay the loan amount.
Since I was pursuing my plus II then, I decided to offer tuition to the children of my village. Initially, the count was low but within a few months, I was tutoring more than 40 students.
With her consistent dedication, she finally repaid the bank loan last year. In addition, she also assisted her father in the labour-intensive job of growing paddy, operating rice huller, collecting milk from dairy farmers of 4 nearby villages and supplying it to a dairy company. Recently, she has installed a flour mill and small-scale mushroom cultivation in her house.
Peeking at her working schedule, we can call her a “working machine” as she works throughout the day without a pause. Her day starts with the visit to her farm fields at 5 am. At 9 am, after returning home she completes her daily chores and sets to collect milk for a dairy company. She then works in her rice huller and four mills from 11 am to 6 pm, In between, during the lunch breaks; she also looks after the mushrooms. She takes up tuition in the evening time, thus completing her day.
Her days out of work insure her with Rs 30,000 a month that she finds sufficient to sustain her family needs of 3. Her brother, who now has completed his engineering degree, also aspires to help her sister to secure the finance of the family. Hence, he is searching for a job outside the state.
“Every adversity is an opportunity. I managed to make the most of the crisis that hit us 5-years back. I want other girls of my village to never give up on problems instead use that to explore new opportunities and become self-independent. Because at extreme pressure, the only success of anyone can be polished.”
urges a proud Subhadra who strives to become an entrepreneur. She also desires to open an orphanage and old age in her area. She is the real protagonist of our society and can instill a change in those who succumb to situations just because of inferior feeling of being a girl. The girls like Subhadra, thus truly attribute the concept of “Inspiring Odisha”.
