Rikta Akhter Banu, a nurse from Kurigram, has been recognised within the BBC 100 Girls 2024 list, which honours appealing and influential ladies folk spherical the field. Nonetheless the story within the aid of this proud success is deeply heartbreaking.
Within the some distance off space of northern Bangladesh, having an autistic or disabled child is seen as a curse. As a mom, Rikta needed to learn this reality the laborious manner.
Her 22-Twelve months-old daughter, Tanvin Dristy Moni, suffers from cerebral palsy. After enrolling her in a local authorities major college in 2007, Rikta faced varied challenges.
“My daughter misbehaved with any individual, and a trainer expelled her from college. After that, she was pressured about going to highschool, nonetheless the lecturers did now not permit her. They over and over refused her admission because she used to be disabled and struggled to have interaction with others,” Rikta told The Substitute Accepted.
No longer only that, Rikta and her husband might per chance more than likely more than likely now not even lend a hand social events because folk would invent hurtful feedback about their daughter.
Rikta lives in Shorkarbari village in Ramna union, Chilmari upazila, Kurigram. She is a Senior Workers Nurse at the Chilmari Upazila Health Advanced, the build she works on shifts. Her husband is a trainer at a local ladies folk’s college. As both fogeys had been busy more in most cases than now not, they was deeply fearful about their daughter.
“I genuinely dangle many scars on my body. My daughter would in most cases bite me,” Rikta continued.
“In some unspecified time in the future, she bit me laborious and made a deep damage on my arm. I was in deal of peril. That day, I even slapped her. I might per chance more than likely more than likely now not work out what to attain. I’m able to now not murder her. I even in point of fact apt jumping into the river with my daughter and drowning,” Rikta mentioned, breaking into tears.
What followed used to be a sleepless night. Nonetheless even this overwhelming peril might per chance more than likely more than likely now not conclude her. Things attain now not trade overnight, nonetheless once in a whereas one night is lengthy enough for a miracle to happen. The following morning, a opinion came to Rikta: to inaugurate up a college for disabled formative years.
She discussed the topic with her husband, Md Abu Tariq Alam and requested that he give her the 39 decimals of land subsequent to their dwelling in disclose that she might per chance more than likely more than likely space up a college for her daughter. She deliberate to show at the faculty within the mornings and work at the sanatorium within the afternoons.
Nonetheless organising the faculty and organising the total lot did now not show easy.
In 2009, the dream finally was into reality. She established the ‘Rikta Akter Banu Buddhi Protibondhi College’ (Rikta Akter Banu Studying Disability College) for her daughter and varied disabled formative years.
With four volunteer lecturers and a handful of faculty students, the bolt started in a little tin-roofed dwelling of three rooms.
Earlier than the institution of Rikta’s college, fogeys within the village old college to lock up their disabled formative years at dwelling when they went out to work. Now, they’ll dawdle away their formative years at school with none worries. In just the first 10 days, the exchange of formative years within the faculty elevated to 63.
“The MP (member of parliament), upazila chairman, Upazila Nirbahi Officer, deputy commissioner, and each person else supported me. They had been happy to learn of my notion and inspired me,” she mentioned.
Rikta’s college now provides education to merely about 300 college students.
“While the faculty used to be firstly built for formative years who are autistic or dangle a learning incapacity, it now caters to younger college students with a differ of intellectual and physical disabilities,” the BBC list’s first price web sites reads.
Currently, the faculty provides education as much as the fifth grade, offering a differ of tutorial and technical topics, including stitching, tune, and sports. Past its feature in education, the faculty has severely impacted local perceptions of incapacity, fostering a more inclusive and supportive community.
There are 20 lecturers employed within the faculty. In 2020, it used to be incorporated within the MPO (Monthly Pay Converse) design. Amongst them, 15 folk, including eight lecturers, are receiving salaries.
BBC compiled the 100 Girls list with 5 categories: Local climate Pioneers, Tradition and Training, Leisure and Sport, Politics and Advocacy, and Science, Health, and Tech. Rikta has been recognised under the Science, Health, and Tech class.
Rikta refuses to rob the credit rating all alone. “It is your success, Bangladesh’s success. It reflects the cooperation of the folk of our country. Chilmari is a extremely bad space. This success belongs to the final moms and sisters of this community,” she mentioned in an emotional inform.
On the opposite hand, her bolt is moral starting. Amidst all excitement, she spoke of the shortcomings of the faculty and her dream of going miles ahead.
Rikta mentioned the dearth of residential facilities, moral meals provisions, a boundary wall, and transportation in her college. She moreover highlighted the need for lecturers’ salaries, repairs to damaged sports instruments, and musical devices like harmoniums.
“If these points are addressed, these disadvantaged college students can progress even further.”
