Rajasthan, 11th March, 2023: In a first of its kind initiative, the ‘Hockey Wali Sarpanch’ Neeru Yadav the Sarpanch of Lambi Ahir, Tehsil Buhana, Jhunjhunu of Rajasthan, joined hands with a film director cum writer Arvind Choudhary. Arvind Choudhary has been making the films for women empowerment since years and found the exciting idea of screening these films at village level especially on Women’s day. Neeru Yadav, the Sarpanch of Lambi Ahir village supported and set the stage to take this as trial in her own village for the women’s right awareness.
100+ village women gathered to watch the movies – PARI, BINDANI and HAATH RAPIYA. These films are breaking the myth and malpractices of society against women. HAATH RAPIYA shows the malpractice by society on ‘Chura Pratha’ that creates awareness on how women can fight against such practices and stop supporting them.
Neeru Yadav, Sarpanch of Lambi Ahir, Tehsil Buhana, Jhunjhunu of Rajasthan, said “To support the efforts of Arvind Choudhary, the film director, I initiated the talks and to my surprise the response from our village was overwhelming. Everyone enjoyed watching the film and took the message home.”
Arvind Choudhary, Film Director, said “Film screening on the Woemn’s day in Lambi Ahir has inspired me to continue arranging such screening to other villages for spreading the women empowerment. My own sister has become victim and she was not allowed to work and live the life in 4 walls like jail. I started making films to save more sisters of our villages by creating awareness by making films on it.”
Through the short film “Hath Rapiya” the pain of pregnant widow and ‘Chura Pratha’ has been described on the big screen. This short film has also received the Best Short Film Award at the 9th Rajasthan International Film Festival in Jaipur. The background of the film is related to Bhavthadi and Pilani of Jhunjhunu district.
Sarpanch Neeru Yadav keeps motivating the village women by taking various initiatives. Recently she donated her salary to train village girls for hockey sports and created a state-level team. She successfully trained 10 girls under PMKVY Scheme and helped to get placed all the girls in a MNCs. Following this successful project, around 15 more girls have joined Neeru Yadav for skill development training and soon a new batch will start.
Santosh Jangid, age 40 years, said, “We have witnessed such malpractices in our village. One of our neighbour’s first husband left her, second time, she was married to her brother in law, and then she was again forcefully married to her next brother in law. This made her life miserable and due to deteriorating health, she went into coma.”
Vimla Yadav, age 50, said, “This malpractice of ‘Chuda Pratha’ continues in villages. Many times, women are not allowed to work.
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