Sangita Is Smart And So Is Her Phone!
I am Markandeya Mohapatra and I work as an Enterprise Anchor in PRADAN. This is not a hypothetical piece that I am writing. Through Youth Ki Awaaz I want to share a first-hand experience of how the digital platform helped a young woman, Sangita Majhi, from a very remote village inThakurmunda block of Mayurbhanj District in Odisha win over apparently insurmountable obstacles in life and evolve as a unique entrepreneur. All that I am writing below is what I have seen myself, and have been a part of this wonderful journey, spanning the last three years.
Sangita has been eating puffed rice, locally called ‘mudi’ since her childhood. Everybody of her village does. It’s a very common snack in her side of India, as well as many other places of the country. At times with coconut pieces, at times with peanut mixtures, and at times just plain mudi. Sangita had just finished her graduation from Keonjhar D.D. College, that she was married to a primary school teacher, Paresh Chandra Majhi of Champajhar village on 2017. She was roughly 20 and doing all the household works became her primary and daily responsibility after marriage. This is common and Sangita was living a life like most women around her did and there were financial difficulties too. “My spouse’s income wasn’t enough to sustain the whole family and it was getting difficult to meet our ends,” reminisces Sangita. She had the right qualification and the age to share the responsibility also. Sangita’s smartphone was a constant source of inspiration too. It showed her hundreds of inspirational stories of women like her who fought challenges and stepped out to work and drove the changes they desired to see in their lives and surroundings. It was a matter of a family of six, including her father-in-law, mother-in-law, her spouse, brother-in-law, and sister-in-law. Sangita felt the urge to do something.