Jangalmahal girl wins prize in nat’l level essay competition

What is the biggest challenge that modern India faces? This is the question that formed the crux of Arunima Kundu’s essay which bagged her, the second prize in a national essay writing (Bengali) competition.

In the essay she has given examples from her own life which throws light on the aforementioned question. The competition was organised in 2013 by a multinational corporation. It was divided into 12 divisions including 11 regional languages and English. Arunima said she had taken part in the competition when she was in class XI in the Bengali essay writing category. The topic on which she wrote was ‘The biggest challenge that India faces currently and its solution’. Arunima candidly stated that while writing the essay in the competition hall, every news articles she had ever read about the abuse of women in India, like the Nirbhaya case in Delhi and countless dowry harassment cases flashed before her eyes.

She wrote that due to these cases which are alarmingly on the rise in the present Indian society, the man-woman ratio in India has such a huge difference. She strained the fact that if women came forward to help with the development works, the task would be completed more efficiently but due to a barrage of societal restrictions, the women can’t contribute as much as they would like to. These hard realities that she wrote about were drawn from her own everyday experiences.

On December 4, along with all the other prize winners of the competition, Arunima also received her prize at a New Delhi auditorium.

Sitting in her Balarampore home, Arunima opened up about lots of things that she thought plagued the current Indian society. She said that this district has been labeled as one of the most backward ones when it comes to education of women. She urged everyone to come forward and work together to find a solution. Now a student of the English department of Purulia Jagannath Kishore College, she reads the newspaper every morning in order to stay up to date with the current affairs of India.

After receiving the prize for her essay she also met with President Pranab Mukherjee along with all the other winners. She said that the President told them to move ahead with their ideas in order to make India a better country.