Cycling to success, Bihar girl inspires documentary

PATNA - She pedalled 10 km to and fro school every day from her village home and went on to stand second in the Bihar Class 10 board exam. Khushboo Kumari says she could never have done it without the cycle she got under a government scheme.

“I simply pedalled five km every day to the school thanks to the cycle provided by the government,” Khushboo, a teenaged resident of Bagaun village in Katihar district, told IANS over telephone.

Impressed by her rare success, the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) now plans to make a documentary film on her struggle to inspire and encourage others living in the hinterland.

Shambhu Sharan Singh, director of the IGNOU regional centre Darbhanga, told IANS that Khushboo’s success is a rare example of how a government scheme can make a difference.

The Mukhya Mantri Cycle Yojna scheme was the brainchild of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who started it in 2007. Official sources say the government has distributed bicycles to 871,000 schoolgirls at a cost of Rs.1.74 billion under it to help them reach school.

Khushboo, who hails from a modest village home - she is the daughter of a government employee - availed herself of the scheme when she got a cycle in the 2008-09 academic session. She was in Class 9 then.

Even as she wants to study science in future, she is already an icon.

None other than Chief Minister Nitish Kumar visited her home last month to felicitate her. He told her at a public meeting that her success had brought him to the village.

He also said Khushboo’s success proved that hard work added with the government programme would help uplift the education and future of children. He gave her Rs.25,000. Rs.10,000 was also given to each girl who secured first division in Class 10.

Nitish Kumar also claimed that the Poshak Yojna (Uniform Scheme) and Cycle Yojna for schoolchildren had helped turn around education in the state. The attendance of girls has shot up from less than 170,000 to 490,000 in just three years.

He said the scheme is “very close to my heart”. He felt it has changed the face of Bihar with hundreds of thousands of schoolgirls riding bicycles to reach their schools every day.

Singh of IGNOU said a team had visited Khushboo’s village to meet her and collect more information to make a documentary film on her. The film will be telecast on Gyan Darshan TV channel of Doordarshan, Singh said.

Ravi Kant, director of Electronic Media Production Centre, IGNOU, said they decided to make a film on Khushboo after getting to know how she had pursued her high school education despite living in a remote rural area in Bihar.

“A documentary film on Khushboo will encourage and inspire other students in rural India,” he said.

(Imran Khan can be contacted at imran.k@ians.in)