SOCIETY: THE YOUNG WOMAN WHO COULD

Aisha Ramchand first came to Himmatabad, a small village on the outskirts of Hyderabad, as a teenage bride.

It was in 2012, after she had agreed to marry Ramchand Kolhi, a Hindu daily-wage worker, who fell for Aisha during a visit to her hometown, Nawabshah. The families agreed to the marriage despite the difference in religion, as Aisha belonged to a Christian family.

She would become the first person, in the village of 150-households, to practise a faith different from Hinduism.

A headstrong teenager, she quickly adapted to life in this new village, which was only settled in 2006 and comprised mostly of houses made of mud.

The Green Rural Development Organisation, a Hyderabad-based NGO that works for peasants and labourers, had earlier acquired 13 acres of land near Shaikh Bhirkio, which would become Himmatabad. Those who were settled here were former peasants and bonded labourers in Tando Adam and Sanghar, who were released by their landlords following a court order.

A young Christian woman from a poor Hindu village in Sindh is determined to provide the benefits of education to the children of former peasants and slaves…

The men and women of the village mostly work for a daily wage, doing odd jobs in Hyderabad and working as harvesters and crop-pickers.

The children were mostly left to their own devices, whiling away their time in the village. Very few children went to school, which was two kilometres from the village — including through a patch populated by stray dogs, where children had been attacked.

“When I first arrived here, all the kids were just playing in the streets,” Aisha, now 28, tells Eos. “I wasn’t able to find even one child who was enrolled in a school. I realised that these kids couldn’t be controlled without schooling.”

It took Aisha six years to find an acceptable solution for this problem and also put her education, a matriculation from the Mariam Convent School in Nawabshah, to good use.

In 2018, she went to each one of the 150 houses in the village to persuade the parents to send their kids to school. When she was told about the problems with the government school nearby, she asked them to send the children to her house, where she would teach them.

“I was happy that most of the parents endorsed my efforts and some agreed to send their children,” she says with obvious pride.

Aisha would set up the school in her one-room mud hut with a thatched roof, where she lived with her husband and four children.

“I just had 10 students in the beginning,” says Aisha, before adding that it provided the impetus she needed. She started with reading and writing, and moved on to mathematics.

“My inspiration was my own schooling system, where I learned about the great difference that education makes in society,” continues Aisha. “I also wanted to do something for the people of this village, who had embraced me so wholeheartedly.”

But the resources were a challenge. Her husband was also a labourer with minimal savings, and they needed funds for books, stationery and desks.

Her efforts to raise funds for the school took her back to her hometown, Nawabshah, and her own Christian community. And she found help from a church in Gujranwala, The Bible Church.

The church has been providing at least Rs10,000 monthly to the school since 2018. It also provided furniture, stationery items and initial funds to set up the school.

“When we visited Himmatabad for the first time, we found Aisha’s efforts very encouraging, and we decided that we would support her at every level,” The Bible Church’s Pastor Samson tells Eos.

He says it was important for the children to be educated, as without education it was not possible for them to realise that they were no longer slaves to any landowner.

ADVERSITY STRIKES

The floods of 2022, sometimes referred to as biblical in their magnitude, wrought havoc across Sindh, and Himmatabad wasn’t spared either.

Aisha’s one-room house was washed away, as were other mud houses in the village, and people had to spend multiple sleepless nights under the open sky.

But Aisha never gave up. Once the floods subsided and water was drained from the land, she once again started efforts to rebuild the school.

“I was determined to turn these children, whose parents had endured years of slavery, into good citizens, and I decided not to give up,” she says of that period.

As before, she found support, this time from the villagers. It took a few months, but the house-cum-school was rebuilt. It was constructed on higher ground, to protect it from future floods, and made of concrete.

In no time, she had 30 children, including girls, enrolled.

Seeta Kolhi’s two children are among those studying at Aisha’s school. “I am happy they are getting an education. It is a blessing for us that we have a teacher like Aisha in our village and our children are getting an education,” she tells Eos.

Seeta says the school has lessened some of her concerns for her children’s future. “Being a mother, I am hopeful my both children will get a good education,” she adds.

For Ramchand, his headstrong wife is an inspiration. He says that her efforts have challenged the perception, in his village and surrounding areas, of “seeing girls as a burden and of having a limited role in a male-dominated society.”

Dr Ghazala Panhwer, a professor of sociology at the University of Sindh, is another who finds Aisha’s work inspirational. She stresses that education remains the only way to uplift marginalised communities, like the one in Himmatabad.

“Aisha is questioning the way our society and societal standards are structured,” she tells Eos. “This is a small step to change her community — providing education means changing the minds of the people.”

For Aisha, her final destination still remains a long way away. “I want to expand my school and provide better facilities to my students,” she says with determination.

“I don’t know how I will manage it, but I am confident that I will eventually succeed.”