Inching-up to self-reliance!
Desh Bir
She came to us seeking work as a domestic help nearly ten years ago. We learnt that her name was Raeesa (name changed) and that her husband who was a small time auto mechanic was into the habit of drinking and often indulged in beating her and never gave her any pocket money. She was retained by us. Neat and clean in her work, she displayed a keen desire to justify the faith we had reposed in her.
While both she and we were finding ourselves in a comfortable work situation, one evening her husband came to us and started accusing that we had persuaded his wife to work for us in spite of her will. He was dead drunk and would listen to no reasoning. It took us quite some time to explain to him that there was no need for her to come the next day if he so felt. He kept grumbling and murmuring all kinds of things against us.
Of course, she did not come the next day. Then after a year or so, we learnt that her husband had died due to a heart failure after a heavy drinking bout. We felt sorry for the lady and her two children who were at school. The auto repair shop was leased out to some mechanic for a reasonable sum which somewhat pulled the family out of utter penury.
Nearly two months ago, the district administration initiated a project to persuade a local industrial house to help fifty widows with the gift of an e-rickshaw so that these ladies could become self-reliant. Applications were sought and screening was done after verifications. Raeesa’s name was there and the selected applicants were trained for fifteen days to learn driving an e-rickshaw.
Then came the day for handing over the rickshaws to the beneficiaries. My wife felt that Raeesa ,too, must have got her own e-rickshaw at that ceremony. A few days later, as I was the just taking my car out of the house, an e-rickshaw pulled along and halted parallel to the car. I found that it was Raeesa.
I congratulated her and told that I knew about her acquiring the vehicle. She said that she had halted on purpose. She pleaded that I should take her mobile number and forward it to family friends who could avail of the services of an e-rickshaw on my reference. Now there was a kind of confidence in her speech never ever seen before.
Today as I was coming out of a shop I saw her entering the nearby boutique with a rare poise and a majestic gait, flaunting a sling-purse with an air of confidence which Raeesa might have once dreamed of, but perhaps never expected to be fulfilled in this life time. This is what self-reliance means for a woman!
(The author is a retired principal, Government College, Hoshiarpur Punjab)
