Living up to a Challenge

The Pratibandhit Kalyan Kendra (PKK) came as a blessing in disguise for me; as I had secluded myself from the world and lived a mundane, a life full of inferiority complexes. My state was so bad that when I had guests home, I would hide in some corner of my house.

It's all because I did not like to be laughed at; especially when I was crippled.

I was two when I suffered a polio attack. It's the reason why people said all sorts of things to me, so much so that it became difficult for me to step out of my house.

But PKK rejuvenated the spunk in my life. Despite an initial reluctance to meet the PKK members, I visited their office in my village. The organization works for the mentally and physically disabled. It's because of PKK that people today recognise Namita Mohanty as a 22-year-old self dependent girl. They look at me with a sense of pride for I am the only working girl in my village, despite my disability.

Even though my family's financial condition was bad, I continued to study for I had to be independent and received great help from my school teacher Ratnabali Mishra for the same. She not only paid for my lessons in school but showered me with a lot of love and affection.

Later as I joined PKK the first lesson it taught me was to be confident and not seek self-pity. The progamme had children who were mentally disabled, some could not speak and others could not talk. It had an everlasting impact on me and I stopped brooding over what I was and how I looked. I realised how fortunate I was as PKK educated me about the kinds of disabilities.

Then I participated in the World Social Forum held in Mumbai in the year 2004. It was for the first time I traveled to a big city- and away from home. It was a self motivating tour for I gathered so much courage and confidence in myself that I started believing I was better at work than many of those “normal” individuals back in my village; who could not work like me.

Today I work with 49 differently impaired children and take each passing day as learning experience. I wstarted working several hours a day even thought my legs would hurt initially. Parents who did not have enough confidence in me started appreciating my hard work and caliber.

A physically disabled Namita is now a stronger, and a much confident worker who takes care of her family and dreams to get her sister married while continuing to serve and add meaning to the lives of several disabled children in her village.