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Women Empowerment: Empowering the Family 107
actual scenario is drastically different – most Aanganwadi
teachers are busy carrying out household chores like peeling
vegetables even in the two hours of their duty, instead of
devoting time to children. It is unfair that the life of children is
spoiled just because the Aanganwadi teacher is more concerned
about her household. This is a matter of great concern.
Teachers are delighted on being appointed, even if on
probation, but their main goal is to complete the sweater they
are knitting before Diwali. They have to understand that
building the future of a child is more important than knitting a
sweater. Making teachers aware of their responsibility is a great
task. If an Aanganwadi teacher who has been working for fifteen
years, has never received a box of sweets from her former
student on getting good marks in the Board exams as a token of
appreciation, something is missing. If a driver saves our lives
during a road accident, we feel indebted to him for life. But we
forget our Aanganwadi teacher with whom we have spent three
to four years of our lives. I would like to tell Aanganwadi
teachers that if even one child remembers you, consider yourself
successful and if nobody remembers you, consider yourself
useless. Teachers should aim for job satisfaction, not just a
monthly salary. If you can boost up the life of even a single child,
it will be a source of great satisfaction. You can proudly claim
your association with your renowned former student. For
example, when General Pervez Musharraf came to New Delhi,
two old ladies claimed that they took care of him as a child.
General Musharraf thanked both of them and gifted those shawls
saying that he was too young to remember, but he would always
be indebted for their contribution to his life and success.
The Aanganwadi is a temple of values and every child who
enters it is a manifestation of God. We have to worship every
child-God by making his life happy. I believe that if we put in
dedicated efforts for this, we can empower entire families. This
empowerment has to lead to the empowerment of the family;
otherwise our age-old traditions would come to naught and
leave an unimaginable blot on our culture. If this happens, only
women will be able to salvage the society.