“I am just a factory laborer, and you expect me to become rich?” Namrata’s father muttered, his voice heavy with exhaustion. His hands, calloused from years of hard labor, gripped the edge of his worn-out chair. His eyes, dull with hopelessness, refused to meet mine.
I let his words settle in the air for a moment before asking, “Why not?”
He scoffed, shaking his head. “𝗜 𝗯𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗹𝘆 𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻 𝗲𝗻𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝘁𝗼 𝗽𝘂𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲. 𝗥𝗶𝗰𝗵𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗶𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝘂𝘀.”
There it was—the deep-rooted belief that poverty is permanent, that scarcity is inherited like a family name. And yet, in the same breath, he spoke of his worries: how he might have to push Namrata into domestic work, or marry her off early because “there is no other way.”
“But what if there is?” I leaned forward. “What if Namrata had skills that could take her further? What if she could study, work, and bring a better future for herself—and for you?”
He fell silent. The weight of generations of struggle sat on his shoulders. But so did a question he had never dared to ask: What if things could be different?
That conversation stayed with me. It made me realize that we aren’t just working with girls—we need to work with their hashtag#parents. Because when fathers and mothers stop seeing their daughters as burdens and start seeing them as possibilities, the cycle of poverty cracks open.
This isn’t just about empowering girls. It’s about shifting mindsets. It’s about making families dream bigger. It’s about turning parents into stakeholders in their daughters’ futures.
Because richness is not a privilege. It is basic. Lakshya Jeevan Jagriti