Inspiring story of a woman with determination – education achieves transformation in Rajendranagar slum area.
Kolhapur: Kaushlya Dattatray Kamble, whose education was just second standard and who was collecting garbage, has now become a ‘madame’. While collecting garbage, she completed ‘Anganwadi Teacher’ course.
She lived with her husband who was alcoholic and was a labourer on a bullock-cart. She started a job as a helper in Anganwadi. After seeing her determination, her husband Dattatray stopped drinking. He replaced bullock-cart with a tempo. As Kaushalya completed her education, Dattatray started calling her ‘madame’ – and now the same Kaushalyabai has become ‘Anganwadi’ supervisor – promoting her to a true ‘madame’.
Slums in Nagala Park area shifted to Rajendranagar. Along with that Kaushalya’s family also shifted. Husband was a labourer and was an alcohol addict. Still she showed the determination to support the family. She started going on garbage collection duty after requesting neighbours to look after her 3 children. Once Koushalya’s brother, who is a teacher, came to her house and felt bad after seeing the condition. He convinced Kaushlya and moved 2 of her children to his home town for education.
One day, Kaushalya came to know about a new batch of ‘Anganwadi teacher’ course commencing in Dnyandeep Vidyamandir institute organised by Kalpana Tawde in her area. She got herself admitted to the course. In spite of several challenges, she completed the course in first grade. She took up a job at the same Vidyamandir and started working for playgroup class. Then she got a job in government’s Anganwadi as an assistant. She also completed BA degree at Yashavantrao Chavan Open University.
Kaushalya truly transformed herself from a garbage collector to an Anganwadi supervisor.
Source: Sakal 31 July 2017