Varsha’s Lesson In Self-Reliance

Varsha told her father that she doesn’t want to go back to his house, and would rather stay with her mother. ‘You never wanted a daughter. You turned us away from your home because I was a girl. Why are you then coming after us now?’ she says. Coming from a six year old kid, these are strong, even unwarranted statements. But before making any value judgements, let’s understand where this was coming from.

Varsha’s father whiled away his time mostly doing nothing before she was born, and his status didn’t change much after her arrival. People who knew him thought he would change after becoming a father. In contrast, he turned angry and threw his wife and their newborn baby out of his house in the pretext that he wanted a boy. In a short while, he started beating the mother and abusing the child. Lataben, Varsha’s mother, had no option but to move out to her own mother’s place.

Lataben wanted her daughter to get educated, so she got her admitted to our ECD program when she reached the age of three. Initially, she was quite good in her activities, but after her mother filed divorce proceedings she started staying quite and became reticent. Our educator observed this and discussed this with her family. Her Mausi, Lataben’s sister, came to her rescue. While Varsha’s mother remained busy at the courts, she took the child under her wings. With active support of the ECD Educator, Varsha regained her composure and started participating in group activities. Varsha mother and maasi were very happy and thankful to GIDF because they realized that only after our educator’s interference the problem was understood and she was given proper attention.

Now Varsha has taken admission in a local school. She wants to become a teacher. And yes, she wants to teach her students the value of dignity and self-respect, lessons she has learnt from her own mother.