Farida's dream
- 2 days ago
- 7 min read
Updated: 45 minutes ago
With her tenacity and idealism, Farida has achieved the impossible. The dream is stil unfolding. Small is truly beautiful.
By Amit Sengupta / Mohand/Saharanpur / Western UP
In her village in Mohand, surrounded by forests, Farida was destined to never open a book. She would never read or write.
She could never pick up a chalk and slate to write her own name, or a colour pencil to sketch and draw the density of her homeland’s green landscape -- the little calf born yesterday, the sudden, zogzag rippling stream along pristine pebbled forest shores after a sudden burst of rain, the vermillion and orange evening sky with a summer rainbow, not even her humble hut with the whole world becoming an open-to-sky courtyard.
Farida was yet another girl child in the forest-dwelling community of ‘Van Gujjars’, who, like all children here, especially girls, were fated to never enter a classroom or school.
Her community of simple, hardworking forest people, perhaps arrived from Iran and Central Asia more than 500 years back. They are tall, sturdy and good-looking, with fine features under an imposing white turban, herding their sheep, goats and cows into the grassland and pastures surrounding their adopted homeland in the vast forest. All they knew is dairy farming and grazing their cattle; the girls helped, did domestic chores, and were destined to get married and go to another house. During summer, entire families migrated to distant lands, up in the Himalaya, looking for fodder and water for their cattle.
With zero literacy, education was impossible for all the children in her community. Farida broke this condemnation, and thereby became a role model and icon, as she moved with sheer courage and tenacity, from nursery to primary and secondary school, then to college, braving all odds.
And who became her best companion in this incredible breakthrough and journey? Her father.
While her father backed the little girl wholeheartedly, she walked a long distance every day to her village school, studying hard, building her quiet little dreams. Her father would drop her and pick her up, often waiting for the school bell for hours. Time passed, she became an adolescent, passed out of school, and decided to go to college.
College was in Dehradun, and it was a long distance away from her forest village, but she took a bus from the highway near Mohand, and did her graduation. As she dreamt of becoming a graduate, doing her Masters’ and taking up a job, under tremendous social pressure, she was forced to marry. The marriage was destined to fail.
Her husband brought another woman to the house, as many men did, with the community in tacit acceptance, since women had no rights to demand justice, or protest. They were meant to accept everything silently.
Farida did not agree.
She was outraged.
She rebelled.
She took her husband to court. She became the first woman in her community to fight back and demand her rights. She set an example for all the women in her community. It was a long and difficult battle in the city court far away, and it dragged on and on. The man laughed at her, declared openly that she is condemned to lose. She became more determined to fight it out.
Finally, she won the battle, and the man had to pay her compensation. While the battle was on, Farida joined the All India Union of Forest Working People (AIUFWP), an organization which worked with the most marginalized communities in remote areas of the country, especially with adivasis and forest-dwellers, fighting protracted and peaceful battles, often followed by great, historic victories.
Currently led by a highly respected adivasi woman, Sokalo Gond from the tribal village of Majhauli in Sonebhadra, and inspired by their leader, feisty Roma, who led a hard and long struggle in the vast forest areas of Sonebhadra for many years, while organizing the adivasis from village to village. Both of them were hounded by the police and imprisoned; but they were relentless, unafraid, stoic.
The struggle grew into a huge movement, spread from village to village in the distant forests of the Central Provinces (UP and MP), mostly led by brave and resilient adivasi women. Implement the Forest Rights Act (FRA), they said.
In this protracted struggle, they rightfully reclaimed their ancient, inherited, forests, their herbs, flora and fauna and bio-diversity, their water bodies, rivers and land, braving multiple and brutal lathi-charges and raids by the notorious forest department, bulldozers that destroyed their humble homes and flowing crops, without electricity, drinking water, a health center, schools or roads.
It has been a historical non-violent, long and hard struggle, often led by women, seeking the implementation of the Forest Rights Act, a constitutionally mandated law which the Forest Department and the local administration refused to implement, while exploiting the indigenous communities like slaves since decades. The oppressive conditions changed, as the struggle grew from strength to strength, spread from village to village, while forests and land were reclaimed in vast areas by the adivasis, across the remote and beautiful landscape around Chitrakoot and Sonebhadra.
The movement slowly spread its wings and reached the forests near Saharanpur-Dehradun, on the other side of the Rajaji National Park and tiger reserve, across the famous Shakumbari Devi range, with wild mountain streams swelling up during monsoon, flowing zigzag inside the forests, where the Van Gujjars have lived since many decades. Farida, inspired by this great movement, heralding a silent revolution, joined it, and started organizing her community for their forest and land rights – still being denied by the forest department, the cops, and local administration.
Inspired by Ashok Choudhury, leader of the Union, and Roma, among other committed members of the Union, like Munnilal ji, Nazim, Guddu, Hukum, Vishal, Parduman, Lakhmi, Ita Mehrotra and Aman, Farida discovered her impossible dream.
In her community, with zero literacy, she started a school under a thatched roof, out in the open.
Soon, children, from four to fourteen started coming to her school. The Union provided books, notebooks, pencils etc. Farida would walk a long distance to reach her nameless school to teach her students, with their reluctant mothers and fathers gradually approving from a distance.
She rekindled the memories of fortitude and courage of legendary Savitribai Phule, and her friend Fatima Sheikh in Maharashtra, who brought education to the poorest of the poor, especially girls, against all odds, abuses, threats and attacks from the upper castes, especially men. They became the inspiration for Farida.
Soon, the parents understood the worth of education, others pitched in with school material, and this miscellaneous rainbow of boys and girls started learning their first alphabets of the knowledge system. It was tough, but Farida would never turn back. Single-handedly, she gave basic education in her informal school to the children, from LKG onwards, including girls. Her students too started enjoying the ‘classroom’ experience, and the thrill of knowledge.
The school grew with more children joining in, right there, in this humble sacred space below a roof, becoming a center of learning. A determined Farida was relentless, and with the Union backing her, she chased her dream.
A journalist crossing the village to write on their life and times, and their struggle for the implementation of Forest Rights Act, had a bright idea. The kids did not play. They had never seen a Ludo, the Snake and Ladder game, a carom board, a football or a badminton racket. All work and no play, makes Jack a dull boy, the journalist thought. So he donated a small sum with one condition – it can only be used for sports, for both girls and boys.
So, on the World Environment Day, leaders of the Union joined from Saharanpur, Dehradun, Haridwar and elsewhere – Ashokda, Roma Malik, Munnilalji, Aman, Alamgir, Guddu, Nazim, Hukum and others – and the children, happily surprised, received their sports package. Footballs, badminton rackets with shuttle cocks, a carom board and Ludo, and the games started. You could see Farida beaming with joy.
Later, she sent a whatsapp message to the journalist. “The children are overjoyed. Now they don’t want to study. They only want to play.”
More good news was waiting. The head and teachers of the local government school, seeing the rapid progress of this path-breaking experimental school, invited Farida to bring her best students to their school. Hence, there she was, with her first batch of students, of all ages, who became the proud students -- enrolled in a proper government school. Farida was asked to continue teaching them informally since some of them could not be regular students due to the long distance from their forest home to the school.
Farida was glad to do that – attached as she was to her students, also proud that an official school has recognized her hard work, academic credentials and teaching skills. It was a historic day for her community. The parents saw a new window of hope opening in their life.
So who were the lucky ones?
On July 14, 2026, the Government English Medium Model Primary School, Khushalipur Kala, gave admission to the following students from Farida’s school:
Reshma, Class 3, Farid, Class 1, Arif, Class 4, Azad, UKG, Yasin, Class 4, Ayub, Class 2, Imran, UKG, Farika, LKG, Hasina, Class 3, Saddam, 6.
They become the first batch of students who have broken the zero literacy taboo among the Van Gujjar community in the forest -- after hundreds of years.
Farida sent a whatsapp message thanking the Union,: “The children were really happy to enter a school building for the first time in their life. School principal KP Gupta and Vinod Sir were extremely encouraging and nice – they spoke to us and gave the children confidence. They too were happy. The children also enjoyed a mid-day meal.”
Farida, with her obstinate tenacity and idealism, has achieved the impossible. Small is truly beautiful.
Farida’s dream. It’s still unfolding.
Amit Sengupta is Editor, independentink.in
Except Phot0 2 and 3, all photos courtesy of AIUFWP,