She holds aloft her awards with pride. After the National Bravery Award that she received from President Kalam in January this year, Lucknow girl Vandana Yadav has just been awarded the Zee Shabash India Bravery Award in Mumbai with the channel already telecasting the grit and glory saga of this young village girl on its network. It is just a little over a year that this young village girl was stabbed 17 times by three youth attempting to outrage her modesty, but she wears the scars with pride.
We travel twenty kilometers out of Lucknow to reach Devamau in Gosai tola, Vandana’s village. Just her name is enough to give you directions to her house near the village pond. Vandana’s tale of valour is known to everyone in the vicinity who guide you to her house with obvious pride. The quacking of her gaggle of pet geese alert Vandana to the arrival of strangers to her house and she emerges from the cowshed, hands still full of fodder which she has been feeding them. Her faded blue T shirt is tattered and darned at several places; her hand-me-down black pants have seen better days. (“I have never worn a salwar kameez. Always a pant shirt,” she tell us later) But neither can hide the spark of pride in her eyes as this daughter of impecunious milk-selling Yadavs accepts her claim to fame.
“It was a wintry afternoon when I had gone to the fields to collect barseen (fodder) for our cattle. I was walking back home with the fodder, my seven-year-old brother Hari Narain was walking ahead with the hasli (grass cutting instrument) in hand when all of a sudden three youths from an adjoining village, lying in wait hidden by tall grass in an arhar field, jumped at me spewing filthy words.”
Using her presence of mind Vandana urged her brother to run home to the village, nearly a kilometer away to call for help while she resisted the advances of the youth.
“One caught my hand and tried to pin me to the ground but I gave him a kantap (tight slap) at which he drew out a knife and slashed my arm abusing me. The other too had knives and lunged at my stomach and chest. I got one stab in the chest, but warded off most of the others by using my bare hands to resist their attack,” she says, showing you the scars that have left deep marks on her arms.
Meanwhile Hari Narain ran breathless to the nearest farm where his grandfather stood guard over the crop and told him what had happened. “My grandfather then rushed with some villagers towards the field. On hearing them, the youth ran away, leaving me bleeding profusely from the attack.” Vandana’s ordeal lasted a full half hour as she fought back her attackers, praying for help to arrive.
“There were no other men in the house at that time,” Vandana’s mother, a heart patient with a valve defect, reveals. “When they brought her back bleeding and wounded, I just collapsed on the floor,” she says, “she was then rushed to the Civil Hospital in Lucknow where the doctors attended to her” she adds.
Vandana sustained seventeen stab wounds in the attack. Her attackers were caught and paraded before her for identification, which she did, landing them behind bars. It took a month to heal her scars. That ordeal has opened this young girl’s eyes to the harsh realities of village life. The Class VIII student, who is the second among five sisters and two brothers, has big plans. All she wants to do is finish her studies and join the police force. “When a villager approaches the police, he generally does not get a fair hearing. I will not be like that. I will give priority to problems of the village. I will study as much as I can. I know I have become a role model for other village girls who come to me with their problems, seeking advice. They have started looking up at me. I tell them never to se themselves as the weaker sex. I don’t. If I had a weapon, I would have killed all three of my attackers.” Vandana today is a source of pride not just for her immediate family but the entire village.
“Today boys from other villages are scared to say anything to girls from our village after the incident. They say, “Ee gaon ki ladkiyan bahut damdar hai, inka chhedo nahi, maarin tumka” (They say we should not tease girls from this village who are very brave. They will give us a thrashing) Vandana says with a smile.
“Shabash India has instituted its own bravery awards to felicitate these young bravehearts from remote interiors who have risen above circumstances to show great valour and guts,” says Abhilash Bhattacharya, producer, director and the mastermind behind Shabash India, speaking to The Indian Express from Mumbai. “What made us choose Vandana was not just her strong will and act of bravery but the family’s courage in coming out with an issue that is usually hushed up in a small town. While the award carries a trophy and some sponsored prizes, we are hoping for NGO support to further assist us in making a significant difference in the lives of these bravehearts, most of whom are from simple semi urban or rural backgrounds and who need to be encouraged onward in life.”