One of the great ironies of being a Rabri Devi in Bihar is that while she was belittled as an uneducated, she truly felt sad and dismayed. Obviously, it was a very disturbing criticism upon her. How could she learn, as she revealed, when her village did not have any primary school during her childhood days. It was natural for her to feel bad and sad at this computerised time. She made it amply clear that she did get little support from her elders to read books and practice maths.
She knows that her lack of education can not be filled now and on account of this very reason, the ruling party leaders spill over her shortcoming off and on. But it can no longer be easily contained after a certain age. She will have to continue bearing the sharp taunts. Fingers or tongues move fast enough to demoralise her all during the agitated discussions.
अनपढ़’ कहे जााने पर राबड़ी देवी ने कहा, पहले के दिनों में स्कूल नहीं था, इसलिए नहीं पढ़े. हमारे बाप दादा ने नहीं पढ़ा या पढ़ाया तो हमारी क्या गलती? लालू ने आवाज दी तो आज सबलोग पढ़ रहे हैं. आज बिहार के लोग परेशान हैं. पिछले 15 सालों में बिहार में सिर्फ झूठा विकास हुआ है.
(On being called illiterate, Rabri Devi said, “There were no schools in the old days, which is why I didn’t study. Our forefathers didn’t teach us so how, is this our fault? Lalu spoke for literacy, which is why everyone is studying. The people of Bihar are troubled today. For the last 15 years, all that Bihar has seen is false development.”)
Illiteracy is an expletive that gives pain in every way. She expressed when Lalu Prasad Yadav emphasised on the importance of education in the state, each one got ready to read and learn.
Bihar stands third from the bottom among the states with low literacy rate, as per the National Statistical Office (NSO) of India report released recently. With a 70.9% overall literacy rate, Bihar was 6.8% lower than the national average of 77.7%.