Razia Sultana: Winning the education battle

Nanglakhumba, Meerut: She is named after the only woman ruler of the Sultanate and Mughal era. Seventeen-year-old Razia Sultana is a picture of girlish grace, dressed in a black salwar kameez, with a dupatta neatly draped over her head. She has seen much struggle, but her dimpled smile hides it all.
Razia Sultana comes from a family of labourers in Nanglakhumba village, 35 km from Meerut city.Two years ago, she was the world’s first winner of the UN’s Malala Award, offered for the promotion of education.
Mukesh, who uses only his first name, and has earlier been a member of the Bachpan Bachao Andolan, said, “Razia was nine when I first met her. She was persistent in her desire to study. She was elected the Bal Pradhan of her village, under a campaign by the Bachpan Bachao Andolan. That is what made her even more determined.”
Like Malala Yousufzai, the Pakistani girl who continued her education and encouraged other girls like her despite opposition from the Taliban, eventually winning a Nobel Peace Prize in 2014, Razia Sultana has worked consistently to encourage girls and their families to see the value of education. It is thanks to her efforts that 63 girls from the village have been drawn into schooling.
Nanglakhumba village is populated mostly by labourers. Many of the children stitch footballs. Each football that is stitched fetches Rs 5. At the end of the day, one kid is not likely to stitch more than four footballs.
How did Razia, who hopes to become a doctor, manage to convince the girls to get an education?
“It was very difficult initially. I would sit with the parents for hours on end. I told them the girls would earn much more once educated, than they ever would by stitching footballs. In the beginning, it was the prospect of money that made parents allow girls to go to school. When they saw changes in the children with education, though, they had other reasons too to keep girls in school,” says Razia, who was among the over six lakh students who took the All India Pre-Medical Test (AIPMT) this year. Only about 50,000 will actually make it to medical school.
To take tuitions for the AIPMT examination, Razia had moved to Kota in Rajasthan last year. That had caused a disruption in her teaching schedule in the village. Now, however, she is back again, teaching young girls in her village.
On any day, ‘Razia didi’ is surrounded by kids. “I spend two hours each day offering tuitions,” she says.
Asked what keeps her so motivated, Razia points to her mother, Zahida. “I could not study beyond class 5. My brothers went to school, and are now working as teachers. When I gave birth to Razia, I was determined not to let her live my fate,” her mother says.
Farman, Razia’s proud father, says, “People would shoo her away at first. She would persist in visiting families and telling them about the importance of sending children to school. I too would tell her she was hardly responsible for the whole village – she should just sit and home and study. But she would just continue with her door-to-door campaign.”
Asked what she dreams of, Razia says, “I’d like to see the end of child labour. Not only in my village, but in my whole country.”