Dr Prannoy Roy on the 14-year-old girl who caused a nation-wide campaign

Election season prime time is usually flooded with battling politicians, outraged anchors and pontificating psephologists. But on May 7, NDTV aired a special report at 10pm that saw Dr Prannoy Roy in conversation with Sunaina Rawat, a 14-year-old girl from Uttar Pradesh’s Mohanlalganj. “For me, I got the understanding of what happens in a scheduled caste family voter from a school girl, Sunaina Rawat…” says Dr Roy as he introduces the half-hour special, before concluding the opening with a simple, “Just listen to her”. The show ran and Rawat’s story was heard—of barren fields, money trouble, the unpaid work that fills her day from cooking to fetching and carrying bales of hay, how getting to school is more expensive than the fees itself—and even though they cannot afford shoes and books for school, she is determined to become a doctor and open up her own hospital some day. Soon, #DoctorSunaina appeared on Twitter with people wanting to pitch in—and an NDTV-spearheaded campaign to support Sunaina’s ambition was launched.

He says, “We were travelling in rural Uttar Pradesh covering the elections, and stopped in this scheduled caste village just to chat with people living there. Our conversation actually started with a young woman who had recently moved there after being married. She was a first-time voter so we thought her opinions would be of interest. However, she seemed a bit diffident in answering our questions and to our great surprise she was being prompted, most confidently, by her young sister-in-law. This was our first introduction to Sunaina, of class seven she told us proudly, who very quickly took over the conversation… Our cameras did not stop rolling once in our interaction with her, so the story was virtually unedited from beginning to end. Our camera team—Soni and Habib—did wonderfully in an unplanned, spontaneous situation.”

Unlike the over-edited, sound-tracked footage and trumped-up theatrics of election politicking we’re used to seeing on news channels, Rawat’s story comes without embellishment. Barely edited and completely spontaneous, Dr Roy follows her lead as she walks from her home to the field and fills him on her everyday reality. And Rawat’s gaze on her reality becomes a searing portrait of the failure of the local and central government that is meant to serve her. She goes on to unmask her interviewer and viewer’s privilege when Dr Roy tells her that she didn’t even let him help her with her bag of straw, and she simply states, “You are from the city. How can you help us?”

“If you have seen our story, you could surely not help but be struck by the wisdom beyond her years and by the complete absence, not a trace, not a tiny smidgeon, of self-pity as she recounted the grinding nature of her daily life. Nor did any of this appear to defeat her spirit nor stop her from dreaming her dreams—just like any young girl anywhere in our country,” adds Dr Roy. So before we’re distracted by election results and the ensuing power play, here’s a shout out to NDTV’s campaign to support Sunaina Rawat. Donations have been directed to the Gargi & Vidya Prakash Dutt Foundation, where donors have been promised quarterly updates on how the raised funds will be used and spent. “And we (at NDTV),” says Dr Roy, “are committed to reporting a story on her progress every quarter so that her generous donors may share in her progress.”

To donate, log on to Ndtv.com

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