Right from childhood, Ritu changed into captivated with social paintings and could frequently participate in neighborhood campaigns that aimed to help underprivileged human beings.
In 1996, Ritu married Arun Kumar, an IAS officer. A few years later, on a visit to her in-legal guidelines’ ancestral domestic in Sitamarhi’s Sonbarsha block, she got here through a couple of issues. There turned into no strength, right drinking water, and an intense loss of fundamental sanitation centers.
A greatly surprised Ritu knew she needed to do something.
She began by tackling the kingdom of training in the village. A woman from Singhwahini had completed her BEd and was teaching in Bokaro. Ritu offered her a higher revenue to come returned and teach inside the village college. The lady agreed and started out coaching 25 girls who had dropped out of the village faculty.
Her efforts were rewarded whilst 12 out of them passed their matriculation tests with flying colors in 2015.
Ritu then moved directly to other urgent problems like open defecation, home violence, woman infanticide, and natural farming. She held seminars and conferences and even carried out infotainment seminars for the villagers.
Ritu became already spending most of her time at Singhwahini and realized that she could circulate there full-time if she changed to fulfill her dream of transforming it.
Her husband and two kids were completely supportive and very accommodative of this decision, and Ritu quickly made the everlasting circulate.
The villagers of Singhwahini then asked her to contest in village elections. Though politics changed into no longer, first of all, a part of the plan, with their religion, she decided to head for it.
Winning by using a whopping 72% margin, Ritu used this position to her benefit. She attacked the problem of open defecation with the villagers’ assist and guide and the District Magistrate. Two thousand bathrooms had been built, and defectors were reasoned until eventually, in October 2016, Singhwahini changed into declared ODF (Open Defecation Free).
She then decided to tackle the issue of crumbling dust roads.
Realizing that the villagers had been reluctant to give up their financial savings and that government resources might take too much time, Ritu paid out of her personal pocket to enhance the village roads. Her enthusiasm inspired the villagers to start contributing progressively, and today, all of Singhwahini has paved roads.
Winning the election also enabled Ritu to target some other big hassle —the Public Distribution System’s inefficiency.
Unfazed via the BDO (Block Development Officer) and dealers who refused to offer any assist or solution to her queries, she and her small crew launched into a gigantic effort to gather the ration cards of the 14000 villagers blanketed by way of the panchayat. They had been then analyzed and pass-checked to look if there was any mismatch or hoarding, which helped her weed out corrupt officers and sellers.
She additionally set up vocational training centers for villagers, after which many of them became marketers or self-hired, even opening up shops.
When big floods hit the Sitamarhi district in August 2017, Ritu had the choice of returning to Delhi. But of course, this gutsy mukhiya did nothing of that sort. She stayed and labored day and night, tirelessly, to assist the sufferers and resource the rescue workers.
Ritu’s inspiring story well-known shows how right grassroots management can make a massive distinction in a rustic plagued by using corruption and inefficiency.
However, over time, human beings, especially the young, were dropping religion in elections. They are seen as frivolous or useless. But now, not voting doesn’t declare disbelief in the voting gadget. It only worsens our very own condition.
It’s critical to pursue statistics in terms of elections. It’s critical to understand your MPs and MLAs and their backgrounds. It’s crucial to have a nicely-read opinion because there are plenty of fake records flying around. And most importantly, it’s miles important to vote.
Because if you don’t, someone else will inform you of the way to run your lifestyles. And that’s not k.
#EndTheStereotype
This story is a part of The Stereotypeface Project, an initiative by way of The Better India that challenges 26 stereotypes, which live on even today. We are showcasing those stereotypes through all of the letters of the English language alphabet.
Stereotypes exist anywhere — they’re surpassed down over generations. Instead of embracing and celebrating what makes us particular, we stand divided because of them!