The world celebrates International Women’s Day on Monday with this year’s theme “Choose to challenge” but this lady chose to challenge long ago.

Meet Basanti Kumari, a physically challenged contractual para-teacher at the Utkramit Madhya Vidyalay, an upgraded middle school at Rorhabandh, about 25km from Dhanbad, who has been teaching there for the past 15 years.

She sincerely hopes to believe what the women’s day theme indicates — “Challenged world is an alert world and from challenge comes the change”. The change in her case would come when she is made a regular teacher, entitled to a salary as per the existing pay scale.

Basanti Kumari writes on a blackboard with her toes at her school. Shabbir Hussain

“I have applied to the authorities for making me a regular teacher under special category meant for physically challenged candidates but nothing happened so far,” Kumari 40, lamented, adding that would help her earn an increased salary and run their family of three sisters smoothly.

Her hands had not developed when she was born and everyone thought she could never attend school but she proved them all wrong.

“I was always interested to go to school and my parents also encouraged me to do so,” Kumari, who graduated with sociology from Sindri College in 1999, spoke eloquently about her parents — Madhav Singh and Prabhavati — who were no more.

Their financial condition had deteriorated after her father’s death who worked as a foreman at Fertiliser Corporation of India at Sindri and she started offering tuition to kids to earn for the family.

“I had appeared at the state teacher’s eligibility test (TET) twice but missed it narrowly both the times,” she informed, adding no job came her way until she joined as a contractual para-teacher in 2005.

“I’m comfortable with my left leg and write on blackboard with that leg,” Kumari informed when asked how she managed to teach in the school.

“I’m the sole bread-earner of my family of three sisters and have also to marry off the youngest one,” she said, adding an added income as a regular teacher would help her a lot.

The para-teachers of the state had been agitating for a long time for regularisation of their service and the state government is likely to make such para teachers who cleared TET regular soon.

“I couldn’t clear TET, so I urged the authorities to make me a regular teacher under special category,” she said, adding she always liked to teach children.

People recognised her grit and even felicitated her on women’s day in the past but her real recognition would come when she would be recognised as a regular teacher she felt.