I love my Papa and Mummy ve...

My name is Renu Maurya. I am a 15- year old girl. My father is a generator operator in the local hospital while my mother works in ‘Aasha', a local non- government organization.

Everyday I help my mother in doing household works before leaving for school. Once I return from school, I spend the rest of the day reading and playing with friends. I love reading story books and playing chess.

Girls in my village are discouraged from going to school. They face discrimination at every stage in their life. One of my friends says that she gets less food than her brother everyday. When she asks for the clarification from her mother she says that since girls will leave family after getting married they need not to be given special attention.

Boys, on the other hand, are the ones who will remain with them and help them attain salvation by lighting their funeral pyre. Therefore they need to be fed more and treated with special care.

I want to be a doctor so that I can serve the poor people of my village, girls and women in particular (since little care is given to their health). Whenever I go to the hospital where my father woks, my heart begins to leap with joy when I see doctors wearing white uniform. I hope me, too. Will be able to don the same uniform some day in the future and make my parents feel proud.