Nurse’s story now an award winning documentary

A young girl’s journey to realise her dream and her father’s determination to educate her in a village nestled in an elephant-infested forest barely 30 km from here, has turned out to be an apt advertisement for the Government’s ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ slogan.

Rashmita Patra, a trained nurse who now works in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) of Institute of Medical Sciences and SUM Hospital here taking care of newborn infants, is an example of how unstinted support of parents can help girls climb the ladder of success.

Rashmita’s story has been turned into a 13-minute documentary by young filmmaker Kaushik Nath titled “She is my daughter”, which has won the second best film award and another prize for best editing in the Ignite Film Festival 2018.

“When I decided to educate my daughter at any cost, I was ridiculed by my fellow villagers who coaxed me into getting her married off,” said Rashmita’s father Chandramohan Patra, a farmer who lives in Minchinpatna village.

As his daughter was keen to serve the sick, Patra said he left no stone unturned to ensure that she was trained as a nurse. “As our village is close to the Chandaka forest and infested by elephants, I have faced herds of pachyderms on the road. But because of God’s mercy, they have not harmed me,” said he.

Nath was excited when he came across Rashmita’s story.

“I was looking for a story to make a documentary when I came across Mr Patra’s determination to educate his daughter against great odds. It moved me,” said Nath, who works for an Odia news channel. Rashmita and Nath were felicitated by SOA University Vice-Chancellor Prof Amit Banerjee on Thursday.