A 20-year-old girl from a financially impoverished family in Bihar’s Bhojpur district has won an international award in recognition for her work for the Musahar community, considered to be the lowest and most downtrodden community in Bihar’s caste-ridden social system.
Choti Kumari Singh, hailing from an upper-caste Rajput family, has been working for the Musahar community since 2014 and her work has been recognised by the Switzerland-based Women’s World Summit Foundation which gave her the “Women’s Creativity in Rural Life Award”, which consists of a $1,000 (about Rs 65,000) cash prize as well. Choti Singh told The Sunday Guardian “The award money is a big help for me. I have only attended the first year of my Bachelor’s degree as my family did not have enough money to support my education. However, whatever education I was able to acquire, I decided to use it to teach Musahar children living in perilous conditions.”Narrating the conditions in which the Musahars have been living, Choti said, “These people face backlash from all sections of society. They were not even used to taking a bath daily because they did not know that it is something basic that is supposed to be done daily by all human beings. Now, their children take baths daily and maintain basic personal hygiene, which has helped them to improve their living conditions.” When Choti Singh started teaching the Musahar children, there were only five of them who had showed interest in learning. Choti Singh now teaches 108 students in all, some of whom are now in high school. Explaining her challenges, Choti Singh said: “My family does not contribute to my social work at all. My brothers and sisters do not understand the work I do. My father is a farmer and the only bread-winner of the family. There is so much that I want to do for the Musahar and for myself too. I want to complete my higher education so that I can unlock more opportunities for these Musahar kids too.” The youngest person ever to receive the Swiss award, Choti Singh also started self-help groups where every woman saves Rs 20 a month that is deposited in a common bank account for starting home-based activities. All pregnant women are now taken to the primary healthcare centre, and mothers educated about their child’s vaccination schedule.Choti Singh had decided to help the Musahars after joining Amrita Serve, a programme run by the Mata Amritanandamayi Math of the renowned spiritual and humanitarian leader Mata Amritanandamayi Devi (Amma). The programme is aimed at the adoption of 101 villages throughout the nation in order to make them self-reliant models of sustainability.