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This Hoshiarpur elderly woman is on a special mission
At the age of 72, Mohinder Kaur has already visited 25 states alone and now cannot wait to visit the rest; she named them quickly as Nagaland, Tripura, Manipur and Telangana.
At the age of 72, Mohinder Kaur has already visited 25 states alone and now cannot wait to visit the rest; she named them quickly as Nagaland, Tripura, Manipur and Telangana.
Kaur, who hails from a small village Dhutkalan in Hoshiarpur and is a president of village mahila mandal since 1983, has a special mission behind this.
Undeterred by her old age, she has been roaming around the nation with an aim to study working of elected women in panchayati raj in different states.
“How do the women in other states work, how the mahila mandals, gram panchayat of Punjab are different from other states, this is what I always look when I visit any place,” she said.
But other than the working of women, she gathers full information on education, police management, and administration of other states.
Kaur in 1994 thought of going all around the nation to execute this research. She mentioned that while touring, she first focuses on the fact that whether the woman is literate or not.
In 1994, she went to Andaman and Nicobar with an urge to learn about the working methods there as she had listened a lot about ‘kale pani ki saza’ at cellular jail there.
While sharing the education facility in Andaman and Nicobar, she said, “Every place there has a school and I appreciate that fact.”
After that, there was no stopping and she went Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Sikkim, Mizoram, Kerala and so on. She says she really admires the working efficiency of women in Kerala.
Meanwhile, language serves as no bar for Kaur as she said, “I only know Punjabi and am proud of it.”
Women in Punjab remain ignorant
She said that the women in other states know about every scheme and knows how to do work, while women of Punjab don’t even know how to stamp the papers.
“The women here generally don’t know the amount of grant that comes from the government which is sad to know,” she added.
“Unlike Punjab state where elected women do not work but the works are done by their husbands; the women in other states do the works themselves,” she said.
Kaur showed deep concern about women in Punjab being more into luxuries and not into work. She said that it is important that the women get educated and start doing the work on their own and don’t depend on others.
Country is her family
When asked about her family, she said that the country is her family and now everyone knows her too. “If one wants to work like me, then attachments with anyone should not be there, it makes you weak,” she stated.
