Her Life is a showcase of India’s unsung heroes, women navigating their way through a changing world. Using audio, video, photos and text, women share their successes and hopes on Her Life, but also their failures and fears. It’s her life – in her own words.
Script of the movie Dangal starring Aamir Khan seems to be playing out in a Madhya Pradesh town where 18-year-old Hansaben Rathore – nicknamed Mahi – trains hard against odds for wrestling gold in the Olympics.
Simdega Agustina Soreng is running a unique campaign: distributing booklets of the Indian Constitution in schools, villages and also in marriage functions of tribal people, to raise awareness, so that the tribes, especially the tribal women, will not be exploited.
Pamkhuila Shaiza, 36, and her Bredwell Correctional Facility in Ukhrul counsel hundreds of substance abusers and strive to support them in their arduous journey towards rehabilitation.
Poverty followed Abha Toppo into marriage. So she readily gave up work on a poorly paid tea plantation to grow something she’d never heard of: dragon fruit. Though everyone told her it was too risky, she ploughed on and is now reaping the rewards.
Arpna Chandail quit her job with a Hindi television channel to go back to her village in Jammu for starting a school that is a class apart from many educational institutions.
Life for Kulwinder Kaur of Pathan Nangal village in Amritsar district of Punjab, has never been easy. Widowed early, bringing up children on her own, looking for firewood and doing all sorts of jobs to run her family – her life is a grim reminder of the everyday struggles of many in rural India.
Observing how the livelihood of her community depended on mahua flowers and tendu leaves from the forest, Stylo Mandavi chose to join the Indian Forest Service. As an officer where human-elephant conflict is common, she must always be on alert.
In a village steeped in patriarchy, 20-year-old Manju Oraon of Jharkhand – blamed for this year’s drought for daring to become a farmer – sells her smartphone to buy seeds, ploughs through her land and the tribal men’s animosity with a tractor.
Having seen her father eke out a living, Rina Das Baul disliked the idea of marrying a baul singer, fearing a likely poverty-stricken life. But her husband not only encouraged her to learn baul music, but got her to perform with him, which eventually took her to international stages.
