March 7, 2008 UNICEF Poster Girl
Now Struggles for Survival By Imran Khan
Patna
Anita Kuswaha, a teenage role model and UNICEF poster girl from a
poverty-stricken family in a Bihar village, is fighting for
survival.
The beekeeper is in desperate need of money to revive her apiaries,
devastated by floods last year. Anita, now 19, has been keeping bees
for a livelihood for the last two years.
It is ironic that the National Council for Educational Research and
Training (NCERT) has included a new chapter about the success story
of Anita - titled "Anita and the honey bees" - in a Class IV book on
environmental studies called "Looking Around". Her story is
inspiring students, but she herself cannot afford to go back to
college.
Anita is upset that she has had to discontinue studies for months
due to lack of money and the need to earn a livelihood. Till July
last year, she was studying for her Bachelor in Arts (BA) English
degree from MDDM College, Muzaffarpur.
"I stopped going to college because I have no money to purchase
books, pay the fees and bus fares. College is 15 km from my
village," she said.
Anita is disappointed with the way bank and state government
officials treated her when she approached them for a loan or a grant
to help restart her beekeeping activities.
"Banks refused to give me a loan and the state government did not
help. I needed Rs.50,000 to re-start beekeeping as the apiaries were
completely destroyed by floods," she told IANS Friday.
Bank officials told her they could not give her a loan because she
had no guarantor.
"I don't have a kisan credit card, nor is my name on the BPL (below
poverty line) list. So, bank officials refused to provide me loan
for beekeeping," she said. Anita asked for help from some NGOs
working for women's empowerment, but they have not responded either.
Muzaffarpur district magistrate Vinay Kumar told her that she would
get financial help by July, when the new season of beekeeping
begins. "I assured her that she would get a loan, but not now,"
Kumar said.
Anita is unhappy with the UNICEF, too. "I was selected by the UNICEF
and declared their star girl. But they did not help me. The UNICEF
forgot me after taking advantage of my name for vested interest,"
she alleged.
The NCERT chapter describes Anita, popularly known as "queen bee",
as a role model for children because of her efforts to educate
herself and rear bees to augment family income.
The chapter is full of amazing but true stories about Anita, born to
poverty-stricken parents. Both her parents work as agricultural
laborers. Anita's determination to educate herself despite poverty
has been termed in the book as a "great struggle".
Her determination to rear bees two years ago when she was 17 proved
to be a turning point in supplementing her family's income and
funding her school as well as college education.
Later, dozens of women of her village took to beekeeping to earn
their livelihoods and educate their children. "I started with only
one box and there were over 150 boxes for beekeeping before the
floods destroyed them," she said.
Till early 2006, Anita was an unknown face in Pattiayasam, a village
largely populated by Dalits, in Muzaffarpur district, nearly 70 km
from the state capital here.
Anita refused to marry young and convinced her parents to let her
continue her studies. She hit the headlines when UNICEF picked up
her story and selected her as part of their "girl stars" campaign in
2006.
She was the youngest of the 15 girls selected for a UNICEF
multimedia campaign to create icons from underprivileged
backgrounds. The UN body made a film on her and released books about
Anita's inspirational story, along with others.
Anita embarked on the path of self-reliance by collecting Rs.1,500
by tutoring children and purchased a box containing a queen bee.
Last year, she received the "Best Bee-Farming" award from Rajendra
Agriculture University (RAU), Pusa, in Samastipur.
But now Anita, who was hailed as a symbol of women empowerment so
recently, is fighting alone.
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