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'I tell village women if they don't educate their daughters, they will die as they were born -- unknown, unheard'

Apart from my studies, I visit 10 villages every month. I have to make two trips to every village. I walk to the villages with my brother. Sometimes we walk through most of the day. I have been doing this since September 2006.

I go to the villages, gather the women and tell them to send their children to school. I tell them if their daughters do not study they will not be able to know their own selves. They will die as they were born -- unknown, unheard.

I tell them that even I would have had a life of no worth had I not studied. I tell the mothers to learn to write their name, at least. The mothers sometimes ask me what will they get by educating their daughters, so I give them my example. Some listen, some don't.

No one in my family has ever got to class XII, I am the youngest of three brothers and three sisters, I am the only one who has got so far. I want to do a BA and become a police officer.

I don't get paid anything for the work I do in the villages (she works as a volunteer and is likely to be absorbed in the Mahila Samkhya programme). The reason I make the trips and listen to my brother's complaints when he accompanies me is because I want poor girls -- whose families had no education till now -- I want them to come to school.

Image: Ramita Kumari visits 10 villages every month, exhorting mothers to send their daughters to school. Sometimes she walks an entire day to reach a village.

Also see: Bihar first state to launch call centre under RTI Act

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