Puspa kumari Ninama is a nineteen-year-old girl born in Sakarpada village of Ghatol Tehsil of Rajasthan living in a family of six-member. Her parents do farming work on the field to grow yield and manage house expenses. However, due to a lack of enough income and helping hands to feed the number of mouths in the family as an elder child, Pushpa started to pitch in. From a very young age, she began helping her father and mother with the farming work as well as household chores, however with time responsibilities increased but the income remained low, to compensate for the money needed she started to take upon labor works in neighboring places too.

Finding the solution to make money for her family she gave her time and effort all in to earn the bread. Responsibilities kept piling and time continued to get scarce. She had to dedicate the whole of her day to work this too was feasible in primary education as she used to go to school in the village itself. Although due to lack of facilities in her village she had to go to a government school in Kanthav Village for the secondary and higher secondary studies, the village was three kilometers away from home but she kept on juggling between academics, commuting and earning a livelihood. At last, time defeated her, in tenth boards examination she could not score enough marks.

Shattered by the first failure she wanted to prove herself on the second attempt to everyone but even then due to financial crisis at home she had to continue working – helping in farming work-feeding goats, reapings crops, watering the field and finding temporary labour work. She wanted to prove her metal at both places but she won only at one. She pulled her family through tough times but failed in tenth grade again. She stood upright for the family always yet now with two failed attempts she did not have the strength to stand for herself anymore. Inadequate marks has broken her faith. Pushpa had no one to pick her up and motivate, no one to tell her she should try again, and no one to pay for her studies again as her parents could not afford those repetitive expenses.

Now Pushpa Kumari’s life was dedicated to her family, working on the field for the whole day and also doing extra labor work some of the days. But no matter how much she tried to accept her fortune with head bowed down and mouth tightly shut her dream to study always bit her.

In 2020 during the yearly survey, Pratham found out about Pushpa Kumari and gave her a chance to appear for boards under the Second Chance program. She started her studies again from the Ghatol Block’s Dungariya Center of Pratham whichis 12 kilometers one-way from her house so she walks 3 kilometers and then find a taxi to reach there every day.

Even while having the opportunity in her hand, toughest thing for her was to be able to give herself a second chance, trust herself again, reinstate faith in her own self. She put a pause on the past and decided to write her future.  Pushpa Kumari is an unsung hero who has raised the sword to fight the problems in the outer world as well as to overcome her self-doubt.