Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Nobody wants to help us because we are dalits: acid attack survivor Chanchal Kumari...

It is never easy for a dalit girl in Bihar to dream big. Caste roles remain well defined in our state and it’s not often someone breaks free from the mould.

Yet, I dreamt of becoming a computer engineer. I was encouraged to pursue my dream by my father, Sailesh Paswan. A daily wage construction worker who barely earns enough to make the ends meet for our family of four, he wanted me — the elder of his two daughters — to be one up on all the boys of our community.

So, unmindful of his meagre earnings, my father did the seemingly impossible: he put me in a Plus-2 college and was making me undergo coaching at Danapur, near Patna, to take the engineering entrance examination.

Life was never easy but the hope of a rewarding future kept me going. Trips from my native Chitnawan village, under Maner police station of Patna district, to my college and coaching institute in Danapur were endless.

But I thought nothing of my daily grind that the 22-km trip entailed.

Then, late in the night of October 21, 2012, my whole world came crashing around me. Full story...

Related posts:
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  2. Outcast in India...
  3. How the low-caste Dalits are treated in India's Tamil Nadu...
  4. Caste massacre in India. (Graphic)
  5. India's brutal and murderous caste system...
  6. Posters in Indian city threaten acid attack on women wearing jeans...
  7. Pakistan acid attack victim commits suicide...

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