Bandipora, Feb 25: Delineated by Kangri and basket weaving, Ganie Mohalla in Gundpora Village of North Kashmir’s Bandipora district has always remained distant and unenthusiastic about providing education to their children, the clan therefore having the lowest literacy rate in the district.
However, despite limited notions and attitude towards education and literacy prevailing in her community, a forty year old lady Aisha Begum went against the tide and pushed her son to pursue education. Her efforts saw the light of the day when her son recently completed a Bachelor’s degree making him the first graduate in the entire community.
Aisha Begum’s determination and commitment to her son’s education is commendable as she has set an example for others in the community to follow
The members of the community opine that it was an achievement accomplished by a mother more than her son.
“Being from a marginalised tribe where education seems a distant dream, I would work as domestic help in the household of neighbouring villages like other women of the community do. . Their luxurious and huge dwellings never fascinated me. But, what I looked at was the pen in their hands which inspired me to educate my son”, Aisha said.
Nevertheless, Aisha always remained on her toes and sacrificed a lot to educate her son. She also erased the taboo of the community who were only looked at as as domestic servants by the upper class of the area.
“The folk tale is now changing. People who were determining our community as broom keepers are now astonished to see our children grooming with education”, Aisha said.
Aisha , with her tireless efforts for the sake of her son’s education, has shown that anything is possible with hard work and determination.
Aisha’s soon Javid, now a first university graduate student from his community, credits his success to his mother. He says that the difficulties followed him, Even though his mother had immense health issues, she kept striving forward in life. he worked very hard keeping in mind how his parents invested so that he could proceed with his education.
“Brought up in an impoverished home, with mother a homemaker , and father labourer, I received all of my education from government schools, yet my aspirations were immense which drove me to becoming the first in the community to hold a degree”, Javid said.
“When I saw my results, I felt a sudden relief and tears of joy streamed down my face,” he continued..
His journey was a difficult one, Nevertheless, with time, he managed to make her mothers dream come true.
When asked about his inspiration, Javid said that his mother is his ideal. “Despite having various health issues , she stayed determined. I have constantly been in awe of her capacity to rebound and, I wish to emulate this from her”, Javid said.
