A forest guard who doubles as an educator. A woman who trains others in tailoring. A ‘Dehati Madam’ who teaches English… Rural India is full of inspiring examples of teachers. This Teachers' Day we revisit some of these stories.
Learning, they say, is a lifelong process that doesn’t stop even after we finish formal education. This is why this Teachers’ Day (September 5), the birth anniversary of India’s second president Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, we bring to you teachers who stand out for their contribution to humanity in rural India.
These are outstanding people from villages who have shaped society by sharing their knowledge for a cause and have been featured on Village Square previously. Read on and be floored by their devotion to the spirit of teaching beyond the scope of a school’s four walls.
Sheela Devi, who became an entrepreneur as a married teen, thanks to her tailoring skills, trains other women in her Jharkhand village so that they can quit brewing liquor and migrating for work.
She was married off at 15, a year after she completed her studies. She had to start without a sewing machine to become a tailoring instructor, while also managing her household. She learnt her craft at the Ursuline Convent School in Dorma village in the Khunti administrative block of her state.
At the request of another villager, she taught 12 women of her village how to cut, stitch and pico. Though she wasn’t paid the promised Rs 1200 per student, she is set on starting her tailoring institute under her maiden name, Mona.
Sheela reached out to the Torpa Rural Development Society for Women (TRDSW) to develop an application form for women who want to join as trainees.
“Other women interested in tailoring are also approaching me,” she said to Village Square. “This makes me happy because many women in Torpa block are brewing hadia (liquor made from fermented rice) to earn money,” she added.
Read the full story: A tailor-made solution for women to stop brewing alcohol
When she isn’t doing her duty as a uniform-clad forest guard within the Kanha Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh, Laxmi Maravi takes care of a school within the reserve.
As an underprivileged Gond Adivasi, Laxmi had to care for her siblings from a young age. She confesses that caring for the forest is a job that’s prepared her to care for the children of the school run by the Kanha Worker’s Society, where she works.
“Running it daily takes effort – right from ensuring the lights and fans are working to taking classes,” she told Village Square. At present the school is from nursery to class III with plans to extend it to class V. The school has five teachers and was started in 2017.
Read the full story: This forest guard doubles up as an educator
Armed with little more than paddy, and a boundless imagination, Odisha’s award-winning artist Pradeepta Nayak revives an ancient art form and empowers women in his native Jirala village through his craft.
Nayak, 53, who hails from Dhenkanal district, teaches more than 1,500 people, 70 percent of whom are women, at his Kalyani Straw Craft Centre.
He has inspired women in his community to embrace and showcase this traditional art form to the world. Through his tutelage, students have achieved mastery in the craft, garnering state and national recognition for their skills.
The recognition of straw art by the Odisha government has further bolstered Nayak’s efforts, with increased support and funding allocated to train aspiring artisans. Each trainee gets a stipend of Rs 3,000 a month, while his own monthly allowance has seen a considerable increase from Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000 this year.
Read the full story: Straw artist Pradeepta Nayak preserves heritage using paddy waste
She has lakhs of subscribers on her YouTube channel. Meet Yashoda, monikered ‘Dehati Madam’, from Uttar Pradesh who is teaching English and rewriting her destiny using a budget smartphone, mobile data and a strong desire to learn.
A road crash left her husband incapacitated, confining him to bed and leaving the family bereft of its primary breadwinner. But Yashoda, who never went to college after completing class 12, was undeterred by adversity.
She acquired proficiency in English and launched her YouTube channel @yashodamaiyavlogs5205 on December 26, 2023. It has more than 3 lakh subscribers now, with vlogs garnering lakhs of views.
“My journey is not just about teaching English, but it’s a journey of learning the language myself. I didn’t have knowledge of anything. I only had a passion to start something,” Yashoda reflected.
Her YouTube income, ranging from Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000 a month, mirrors her online acclaim, a realm distant from the comprehension of her fellow villagers in Lodhan Ka Purwa of Kaushambi district.
Read the full story: From homemaker to ‘Dehati Madam who teaches English’
Tajkira Begum, a 53-year-old from Agartore village of Nanoor block in West Bengal’s Birbhum district, leads self-help groups aimed at empowering women through kantha — a centuries-old tradition of stitching patchwork cloth from rags, originating in the rural areas of the state.
Tajkira’s own journey with kantha began decades ago when she learnt the craft from her mother. Their family was respected but faced many financial difficulties. After getting married she refused to sit idle, forming her first self-help group (SHG) after taking a loan of Rs 1 lakh from the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC).
Today she believes that kantha has changed the destiny of Nanoor. “Earlier you would be hard-pressed to find women graduates here. Now we have quite a few teachers and even an engineer in every other village in Nanoor,” said Tajkira to Village Square. “The mothers have toiled endlessly at kantha craft to bring forward a generation of self-driven women,” she added.
She also trains young women from vulnerable backgrounds to use kantha to become financially independent. Single mothers and widowed women engage with Tajkira as artisans, producing articles of daily use.
Read the full story: ‘Kantha Didi’ takes Bengal’s age-old art to global recognition
The lead image on top shows kantha teacher Tajkira Begum instructing her pupils in Nanoor block of West Bengal. (Photo by Sukanya Roy)
