Illiterate woman educated world | Fusion - WeRIndia

Where there is a will, there is a way. This is very true in this woman’s case. Kinkri Devi is an illiterate woman. Yet, she is educating the world about environment.

Kinkri Devi started working at a tender age as a servant due to her family’s poor condition.

She was married to Shyamu Ram at the age of 14. Her husband is a bonded laborer.

She became a widow after a few years of her marital life. She was just 22 at that time.

After that, she had very tough times and was not able to meet her daily needs. As a result she began working as a sweeper.

Despite being illiterate, she had plenty of life experiences with which she was able to make people hear her.

Limestone quarrying was a major business in her district due to which contamination of water bodies, and deprivation of cultivated land were quite common there.

Even a reduction in forest area was seen.

She raised concerns about the impact of uncontrolled mining on environment and educated several people about quarrying.

She even filed a PIL with the help of a local voluntary group in Shimla High Court.

She participated in a hunger strike for 19 days when she did not receive any response to her PIL.

Then the court gave a stay on mining and imposed blanket ban on blasting the hills.

She even won in the Supreme Court which was later proceeded by the opponents.

Kinkri Devi attracted world’s attention as a notable environmentalist and was invited to participate in the International Women Conference in Beijing in 1995.

She was given the honor to light the lamp at the opening function there in the midst of notable global guests.

In 1999 she received Jhansi Ki Rani Lakshmi Bai Stree Shakti Puraskar.

Knowing the importance of education, she took steps to open a degree college in her village.

This bold lady died in 2007 at the age of 82 after proving that a strong will can achieve everything.

Image Reference: Thebetterindia, TheIndianExpress, OkTataByebye