Emotionally scarred and repeatedly taunted for giving birth to four daughters, Rajbala Devi was forced to leave her home by her in-laws in 2012. With her husband by her side and her daughters in tow, she chose to rebuild her life from scratch and rise above societal prejudice against the girl child.
Fourteen years later, her happiness knew no bounds when her daughters, Sonam and Sneha, scored 94 per cent and 88 per cent, respectively, in the CBSE Class 12 examination results announced on Wednesday.
While her elder daughter Nisha is pursuing BTech in Artificial Intelligence from Guru Jambheshwar University of Science and Technology, another elder daughter is married.
The younger daughters are now determined to carve their own paths in life. Sonam aspires to become a Chartered Accountant after studying Commerce in school, while Sneha wants to become a teacher.
Recalling the hardships she endured, Rajbala Devi said she went through one of the most difficult phases of her life but never compromised on her commitment to educating her daughters.
“My mother-in-law used to taunt me for having daughters. It became unbearable. There were arguments and humiliation almost every day. I decided that I would not let my daughters grow up in an environment where they were looked down upon. So, we left the house and started living in a small rented accommodation on the outskirts of the town,” she said.
She started working as a daily wager in a factory, while her husband worked as a driver for private vehicles. “I knew education was the most important thing for my daughters,” she added. Although the couple had a son in 2016, they chose not to return to the family.
“There were times when we struggled even for daily bread, but we enrolled the girls in ‘Nai Raahe’, a school run by an NGO in Hisar that provided free education up to Class 5 for needy students,” she said.
“This school turned out to be a blessing in disguise for us because we could not afford to enrol our daughters elsewhere due to severe financial constraints. After Class 5, Sonam secured admission to Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya in Pabra village, while Sneha was admitted to a private school under Haryana Government’s 134-A scheme and was later shifted to a government senior secondary school in Gangwa village,” she added.
Umesh Sharma, founder of the Nai Raahe NGO, said Rajbala Devi’s struggle was an example for society.
“There are many children, especially girls from economically weaker sections, who face discrimination and are left out of the mainstream because they are denied the basic right to education,” he said.