A woman came to a village with dreams of raising awareness on the right to education. As a teacher, she noticed that the children at the school do not attend it often. She spoke to the Head of the village and asked him about the reason for this. He revealed that many men in the village are dependent on alcohol and they are labourers. They put their children into labour at early ages to compensate for the money wasted.

The teacher invited the villagers to a gathering. She requested them to send the children to school. Unfortunately, the men started walking away but the women stayed behind and listened. She urged the women to write down their concerns in writing and take it to their husbands. To support this, one teenage girl in particular, who knew how to write, gathered their concerns on a paper.

After some time, the teacher gathered the villagers again. The girl read out the concerns of the women of the village. Some wrote about how a woman who died because she couldn’t get medicines worth Rs.20 but her husband would buy more expensive alcohol every day. Another complaint was about a child not getting the amenities to study. Another was about not having someone educated in the village to represent the village and request a road to be built.

Most men could empathise with the concerns but some got offended. One of them threw a stone at the girl. Another pulled at her dupatta. A boy who happened to know this girl came forward to protect her. He took her towards a kitchen next door to hide her. Most guys found the attack on girls unfair and stopped the hooligans with their might. They ensured the teacher’s safety as well.

As the girl was covering up her torn dupatta and moving towards the kitchen, someone questioned how she could read. She said she learnt from the postman in the village. One of the hooligans threatened to harm her family. This scared her and she started apologising profusely.

The boy who was with her, pulled her into the kitchen to prevent further exchanges. Meanwhile, some children brought her clothes and medicine. In the kitchen, the boy wiped the tears of the petrified girl and assured her that she did nothing wrong. The girl stopped shivering in fear and smiled to hide the hurt.

The disappointed teacher stood at the centre of the gathering surrounded by some villagers who protected her. One of them told her that the change would happen. Slowly, but it will. She lifted her chin with a renewed belief.