Assam has another feather added to its cap through Rangila Medhi who is inspiring young girls and women in the state to become literate. The 60-year-old, who counts her age from the moment she began to read and write, has set an example for females across 15 villages in Assam’s Mangaldoi district through her urge to impart education.
Belonging to Sakuapara village in Darrang district of Assam, Rangila has inspired over hundreds of people to start studying. She had to drop out of school at the age of 10 when her father dragged her home from school despite her will to study further. She started studying again in 1993 when Mohila Deka, a volunteer for an adult literacy programme, towed her to the courtyard of a school.
Rangila, a daily wage worker, is now the head of the school’s managing committee and also a pep-talk visitor to the Sakaupara high school and at a private Assamese medium school. Though she is not a professional teacher, Rangila wishes to fulfill her dream of studying further.
“Even now I want to learn more but due to financial constraints I cannot fulfill my dreams. If I get help from any source then I could have spent more time to learn things. At least I could spend 8-9 hours within a day. I am not a professional teacher but I am trying hard to learn the ways of it,” she said.
Earlier, Rangila worked in other people’s paddy fields for a living. However, she never missed an opportunity to campaign for literacy. She has also published two books, including a compilation of Assamese poems. Despite her age, her eagerness to learn is exemplary.
Having realised the importance of women education, Rangila went from village to village urging women to go to schools. She has also been teaching women in the village on a regular basis by calling them to her home.
“I think everyone should know how to write his or her name and fill up bank forms. Many have learnt to do so but lot are yet to acknowledge it. During the lockdown it was difficult to run the school for these women, so I called them home,” she said.
Rangila has been championing the cause of female education at a place where the very thought was a taboo few years back. Since 2012, she has conducted Saakshar Bharati exams for more than 100 adults, and has touched more than 3,000 lives by urging them to become literate.
“She works very hard to educate people. Sometimes it is very difficult for us to go to school every day as we have our household work and the paddy field. Despite all the difficulties, we are managing to go to school,” said Kanika, a localite.
Today, Rangila heads several women groups of her area and despite not being a conventional teacher, she is more of a teacher for her loved ones.
“Teacher’s Day is not only to pay our regards to the great visionary but also to educate ourselves. I don’t accept defeat so easily. You need not be a teacher but one always has to a good student,” Rangila said, adding that life in itself was a great teacher.
Echoing the government’s ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’ initiative, she said that if someone is illiterate then he/she is considered to be a ‘dead’ person.
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