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From: Times News <[email protected]>
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Sent: Thursday, 28 July 2011 9:27 PM
Subject: Now, she wants to write about farmers' agonies
Now, she wants to write about farmers' agoniesRamu Bhagwat, TNN | Jul 28, 2011,
08.46PM
ISThttp://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/nagpur/Now-she-wants-to-write-about-farmers-agonies/articleshow/9399032.cms
NAGPUR: In 1998 Ramdas Ambarwar, a farmer at Telang Takli village in Kelapur
taluka of Yavatmal district, committed suicide unable to
bear the piling debt burden. He was the only bread-earner and with his
death the world came crashing down for his widow Saraswati and four
daughters. Their youngest daughter, Manju, was just over five then.
Since that day, life has been an endless struggle for the Ambarwar
family.
For Manju, now 19, Wednesday
brought a ray of hope as she secured admission in journalism course of
Nagpur University. "I want to pursue journalism. That way I can
chronicle life and times of Vidarbha farmers. As the daughter of a
farmer who committed suicide, I have seen it all from close quarters and
suffered every moment," Manju told TOI. She wants to sensitize people
and the government about the miserable conditions in which farmers
depending on vagaries of nature and mercy of policymakers have to live.
"After father's death, mother had to look after the farming work and
also run the family. She did not buckle down and gave us all strength to get
along in life. She arranged for marriage of two of my elder sisters Sushma and
Meenakshi after they had studied up to Class XII. My third
sister, Jayshree, was in XII when a serious kidney ailment struck her.
Mother wanted her to pursue a professional course as she was a science
student. But Jayshree could not survive. Another of my mother's dream
was shattered," said Manju. The already distressed family could hardly
afford the costly medical treatment and got into even more financial
trouble.
Amid all this, the youngest
sibling continued her studies. After primary education in the village,
she went to nearby Umri to study up to XII and then commuted daily by ST bus to
Pandharkawda for the college. This year she graduated in arts.
Visibly happy after securing admission to bachelor of mass communication course
at the University campus here, she feels she is a step closer to her ambition
of being a journalist. "As a kid, I was impressed by the
reporters who regularly visited our home to write about farmer suicides
in Yavatmal district. I made up my mind to be a journalist and write on
the issue from my personal experience of pain and sufferings," said
Manju.
"I remember, soon after father's
suicide the then chief minister Narayan Rane came to our village. At a
function organized to hand over compensation cheque of Rs 1 lakh several
promises for welfare of farmers were made. Among the promises that were never
kept was the one providing free education for children of farm
suicide victims," she recalled.
"Thank god for the grit and courage of my mother that we survived the hard
times.
Also Kishore Tiwari and his Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti came to our
rescue and stood by my mother. I have no idea how I will meet the cost
of studying and living in a big city like Nagpur. I only hope I realize
my ambition and lend a helping hand to my mother back in the village,"
says Manju.
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