Assist 100 Ladies in Mirzapur #PedalToFreedom & Empower 5 Villages With Simply Rs 5000

It’s a protracted stroll via the forest — 10 kilometres, to be exact. She should set out early; how else will she attain college on time? But each step is shadowed by concern. Each blade of grass that brushes her kurta — the village of Dhanaita in Mirzapur is overgrown with these wild grasses — makes her flinch.

She desires to run. Fast psychological math tells her that sprinting would lower quick the time she spends on this eerie silence. However an early morning marathon with a heavy bag of books will not be possible. So, she retains strolling, concern her solely companion.

This isn’t a narrative from Khushnama Banno’s English textbook. For years, it was her dystopian actuality. Many days, her mom urged her to skip college. However Khushnama would protest: “Then how will I turn into a physician? How will I research? Who will educate me if I sit at house?” At 11, she is sensible past her years.

Another excuse she chooses college over house is what she sees in her mom’s routine. It holds up a mirror, exhibiting her the life she is likely to be destined for with out training. She dreads rising up with out independence.

To Khushnama, the selection is stark: Stroll an hour via the undulating forest or keep uneducated.

However there’s a 3rd possibility — and it wants you.

For simply Rs 5,000, you’ll be able to present Khushnama a cycle.

The Higher India, in collaboration with the Lala Bhagwandas Belief, is working to present cycles to over 100 women like Khushnama. Along with your help, they will carry their gaze past this painful alternative and pedal in the direction of freedom.

We would like them to cycle to highschool.

Your contribution additionally provides you an opportunity to obtain an unique invite to Optum Presents The Higher India Showcase, supported by the M3M Basis, taking place in Delhi on 18 September 2025.

Reward 100 cycles, empower 5 villages

In lots of properties throughout the villages of Dhanaita, Piprahi, Dhanupur, Bidapur, Taktakpur, Fulha, and Bagha in Mirzapur, the chulha (cooking range) lay unused for months via the COVID-19-induced lockdown.

“Some households had been in such a foul situation, a few times, they ate grass and slept,” shares an knowledgeable supply from the village. The boys, day by day wage labourers, had no work. Melancholy drove many to spend their financial savings on desi daru(native liquor), andtheir wives bore the brunt of it.

On the time, the Lala Bhagwandas Belief stepped in with meals rations. However Neeti Goel, who leads the belief, shortly realised meals alone wasn’t the answer. “Even after the pandemic, when issues opened up, we realised the women had not resumed college. The area is a conflict-prone space with some Naxalite exercise. Dad and mom didn’t wish to ship their daughters to highschool, as a result of it was unsafe for them to stroll via the forest.”

To make issues worse, the route can also be shared with wild canines, Khushnama tells me.

On days when she is further nervous about the stroll to highschool, she pleads along with her mom to accompany her. “However my mom says there may be a lot to do at house,” the lady explains. It isn’t a viable possibility both. A one-way stroll to highschool takes Khushnama half-hour. Her mom must stroll an hour simply to drop her off.

That’s when Neeti considered cycles as essentially the most sensible possibility. When she distributed just a few to chose women that yr, the impression was instant and visual.

The women noticed the cycle as nothing in need of life-changing. Neeti shares, “For them, a cycle is equal to how most of us would understand shopping for an plane. These women are good and gifted. They simply want alternatives, and the cycle provides them that.” She remembers how heartwarming it was to look at the women deal with the cycle with reverence. “They prayed to it, adorning it with pink flowers they often provide throughout puja (holy worship).”

‘Dad and mom would fairly their women cease learning than ship them on an unsafe 10 km stretch’

The cycle distribution is certainly one of many initiatives underneath the umbrella of the Lala Bhagwandas Belief, led by Neeti. The 35-year-old belief has diversified into the fields of training and well being, scaling up amid the pandemic when, via its many venture arms, it helped ship 1.5 lakh migrant employees again house, adopted 32 orphanages, and supported 800 intercourse employees.

“We additionally rebuilt 1,000 properties in Raigad, and helped ladies in Uttar Pradesh begin incomes by driving e-rickshaws,” Neeti shares.

The cycle initiative, nevertheless, is likely one of the closest to her coronary heart.

“Dad and mom of those women typically speak in confidence to my volunteers their worries for his or her daughters’ security. To preempt any incidents of harassment or some other calamity, they cease their daughters from going to highschool. So whereas all of those women are enrolled in colleges, the lecture rooms stay empty,” Neeti explains.

Prakash Singh, director of one of many native colleges, says they struggle their finest to counter this harsh actuality. “I attempt to accompany among the college students after I can. I additionally strive to make sure that there are individuals alongside the route so the stroll doesn’t really feel lonely. However regardless of this, we see low attendance, as a result of mother and father are afraid to ship their daughters.”

Whereas many college students quit, others like Khushnama stay decided. “I’ll proceed going to highschool even when I’ve to stroll for hours, as a result of I wish to turn into a physician,” she shares. Her resilience evokes each Neeti and Prakash.

“The roads in these villages are kaccha (uneven), and infrequently a cycle is the one sensible technique of transport,” Neeti notes. By gifting Khushnama a cycle, you’re guaranteeing an training for a possible physician who might someday turn into certainly one of India’s best.

Between these women and their goals stands a ten km stretch of forest. Assist them pedal their method to freedom.

Reward them a cycle. Donate now.

Your contribution additionally provides you an opportunity to get an unique invite to Optum Presents The Higher India Showcase, supported by the M3M basis, taking place in Delhi on 18 September 2025.

(Word: The Higher India is not going to present any transport or lodging to attend the occasion in Delhi.)

Edited by Pranita Bhat; All footage courtesy Lala Bhagwandas Belief