Born with a hand completely numb she has never submitted herself to the wheel of fate, rather accepted her physical disability as a bliss and went on with life.
Not only has she fought tooth and nail to overcome ordeals in her life, she has also stood by those like her, who are unable to face life’s hurdles by themselves.
Undaunted, Rokeya Begum defied her physical hurdle. She passed SSC examination in 1993 from Baghata Noor Aftab Adarsha Bidyapeeth and HSC in 1995 from Narsingndi Mohila College, now Narsingdi Sarkari Mohila College.
“After that I have had to do nothing for the next five years. My parents became worried. They married me off for which they had to spend over Tk2,00,000. I was married to a small businessman from a neighbouring village,” she described.
But within a very short time his business suffered a huge loss. “My family came to his rescue and gave him money to go abroad. He took the money and never came back.”
Rokey felt broken but has never conceded defeat. She joined a non-government organisation –Spandan Pratibandhi Unnoyan Sangstha – that opened a branch at her village Baghata in Narsingdi.
The organisation works for the disabled, she said boasting that it is she who now leads the organisation in her locality.
“It was a great pleasure that they handed me the responsibility,” she says.
According to Rokeya Begum, the rights of physically challenged are being violated all over the country. She said they were trying to build resistance against the human rights violation.
“We enlist the cases of the victims and then provide support with the help of the local government. The funds we get from the government is insufficient.”
The biggest challenge is to enrol persons with physical disabilities in schools, to get them working opportunities and bring them into the development process, she said.
To this end “we arrange training sessions so that they can be prepared themselves for the job market. We recommend them for certain jobs”. The organisation also holds seminars and do advocacies at the national level so that the windows of opportunities for the disabled open up.
There was a time when the school authorities used to refuse taking the disabled but with the passage of time “we have managed to persuade them into enrolling the disabled to the mainstream education”.
Through the years of her involvement and activities, Rokeya has achieved a lead role at national level by working for disabled people, She is now a councillor of National Grassroots Disability Organisation and later became the vice-president of National Council of Disabled Women.
Her connectivity with people earned her a reputation among people which made her an elected Local Government (Union Porishad) member of Shilmandi Union Porishad of Narsingdi district.
