As the world marks the International Women’s Day today, The Pioneer looks into the inspiring stories of some women in Uttarakhand who inspire others to break the glass ceiling by following an unconventional path in their life.
One of such women is 23 years old Minakshi Khati, popularly known as Aipan Girl, who is working since December 2019 to revive the traditional art form of Kumaon – Aipan. According to Khati who hails from Nainital district, she used to make Aipan designs since childhood with her mother and grandmother. She said that this local art is gradually losing its identity among the young generation so she started making Aipan drawings in various items used in home decor and started to put them on social networking sites. After she received appreciation and various orders from people across the country, she decided to connect with several local women who were fond of Aipan designs and started a small group. “Now we also run national and international workshops for Aipan drawings as many people want to learn this art form,” said Khati. Several women know Aipan and through this initiative the local women get to showcase their talent across the world. Khati informed that she would soon start work to promote this folk art in other districts too.
Further, there are two Dehradun-based women, Richa Karnwal and Jyoti Doval who took the digital India campaign to another level by starting a Facebook page- Uttarakhand Virtual Bazaar last year which has over 17,000 members so far. According to one of the admins of this group- Pooja Doval, they started this virtual Bazaar during the lockdown to give local women a platform to do business from their comfort zones. Doval stated that in this virtual bazaar, one will find everything from food, clothing and home decor things among various other items. Another inspiring woman is an e-rickshaw driver Gulistan Ansari who is considered among the first women e-rickshaw drivers of the State. She lives with her mother and has been driving the e-rickshaw for over three years. She said that sometimes she has to face certain issues for being a woman but she mostly gets a positive response from the passengers and her colleagues. “I started to drive e-rickshaw to financially support myself and my mother who could not work due to her illness and all my five sisters are married,” said Ansari. On being asked about what she thinks about women’s day, Ansari said that she does not know much about it but wanted to add that it is very important for women to be financially independent. According to her, women should do the job they like rather than overthinking that a particular job belongs to a man only.
Monday, 08 March 2021 | Purnima Bisht | Dehradun
