"I want to study,didi. Please do something." The request to Priyanka Chopra came from a 16-year-old girl from a non-descript village in Rajasthan when the Bollywood actress met them to learn about a government-UNICEF education initiative. And the simple advice from the actress to Lalita Atal was: "learn sewing,cooking,art and many other vocations like that to gain confidence and stand on your own feet". "I really want to study,didi. It has been three years since I left my studies due to lack of money. I also feel like going to school when I watch others but can't. Please do something," Lalita told Chopra. Chopra,an UNICEF goodwill ambassador,was at an 'Anganwadi and Mahila Empowerment Centre' in Nanakpura village,about 20 km from Jaipur,where she came across a group of girls for an interaction as part of Rajiv Gandhi Scheme for Empowerment of Adolescent Girls 'Sabla'. Instead of depending on others,she said,the girls must stand up on their own feet,become self-sufficient and empower themselves by learning any form of knowledge like sewing,cooking,art,and many other works that would give them confidence. "If a girl like me from a small-town like Bareilly (in UP) can come to Mumbai and become a star and that too when I had no godfather,nobody pushed me,any girl can do that. My parents have always supported me. They gave me freedom to do whatever I wanted to do and it's very difficult for every girl to get this kind of opportunity and family," she said. "The point is even if your parents are not educating you due to lack of resources or they would rather make their sons study,what the girls need to do is to educate themselves in any form of knowledge so that they don't depend on the families they get married into," she said. Though elementary education is mandatory in India,Chopra said sometimes people cannot access it because of lack of resources and money. "These girls have accepted that fact and they are still feeling empowered because they have initiatives like 'Sabla' to tell them that they can still be important and they can still make a difference to their families,if not the world. "I feel that is an incredible feeling of self-realisation for a girl who probably was treated like a dead soul," the actress told reporters later. Chopra said she believed government was doing a lot,if not enough,for empowerment of girls but due to the size of the country it was impossible to reach to every girl. "Sabla is a slow and steady process of empowering girls,I am glad that at least something is being done in this regard," Chopra said. The centrally-sponsored scheme 'Sabla',which was launched last year by Union Home Minister P Chidambaram in 200 districts in the country on a pilot basis,targets girls in the age group of 11-18 and aims to improve their nutrition and health status,upgrade their life skills,home-based skills and vocational skills.
