Nalanda: Shattering the glass ceiling together with her four daughter-in-laws, a woman from the Chandi village here appeared for the basic examination in Chandi Middle School on Sunday. The exam, organized under the Mukhyamantri Akshar Aanchal Yojana, was taken by over 9,000 women from rural areas across India. Among these were Sivarati Devi and her four daughter-in-laws.
With a rural background and barely any academic awareness among the people in the their village, the five women have become the trailblazers for women empowerment in their village. 45-year-old mother-in-law Sivarati Devi's daughters-in-law Shobha Devi, Seema Devi, Veena Devi and Bindi Devi are all proud to be among the very few educated women in their village. They started their education six months back and managed to keep their study routine intact despite having to work as labourers and look after household chores everyday.
Speaking to ETV Bharat after taking the exam, the youngest daughter-in-law, Shobha Devi said that it gives her a sense of accomplishment to do something that will help women like her to create an identity of their own. "In the past six months, all of us have learned to write names and read aloud. We have also learnt the basic, workable addition and subtraction. Now we can put our signatures on documents instead of a thumbprint," Shobha said.
