Twenty-two-year-old Rizwana Khan is a budding mountaineer from a town under the Pilkhuwa municipal board who wants to prove that ‘small-town girls’ can achieve success and prove their mettle.
She scaled the Stok Kangri (6,135 metres) in 2013 and the Golep Kangri (5,985 metres) peak in 2015. She is now aiming to scale Mount Everest. However, she does not have sufficient funds to fulfil her ambition.
Khan is from a financially weak family of eight, who live on the earnings from the mobile phone repair shop run by her brother.
“I have been writing to the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav and have also written to CM Yogi and PM Modi. I am awaiting their response. Last August, my documents were verified but the funds were not granted. I hope for a chance to scale the Everest. My father had to leave his job as in Panipat as could not be here to support me,” Khan said.
Her father, Intezar Khan, left his job to support his daughter’s dreams and the entire burden of supporting the family fell on her brother, Haidar.
“I am just trying to prove that girls from a small town can succeed in life and be an inspiration for others. They have every right to get educated and live a contented life. There are people who still mock my family for supporting my dreams of mountaineering. People often tell my father that he should not have supported his daughter and instead support his sons, but he does not pay heed to such people,” she said.
{{/usCountry}}“I am just trying to prove that girls from a small town can succeed in life and be an inspiration for others. They have every right to get educated and live a contented life. There are people who still mock my family for supporting my dreams of mountaineering. People often tell my father that he should not have supported his daughter and instead support his sons, but he does not pay heed to such people,” she said.
{{/usCountry}}She says that she may require nearly Rs32 lakh for scaling the Everest. “Scaling the Everest is a risky proposition. I am still preparing myself physically and undertaking 15km runs in the morning and 10km cycling every day. I have still not lost hope,” she said.
“It was very difficult to venture out into the unknown, that too coming from a conservative environment. But I will prove that girls from small towns can face major challenges and emerge as winners,” she said.
The district magistrate of Hapur assured all possible help. “She should come for a meeting with her application and we will help forward her forward it to the state government,” the DM said.
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