Dantewada girl’s story in school books

The saga of the girl from Chhattisgarh’s insurgency-hit district of Dantewada, who had braved Naxal bullets to save her younger brother from Maoist attack six years ago, has made it to school books.

The National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has incorporated the story of Anjali Singh Gautam, who ran to safety carrying her wounded brother in spite of being shot in the shoulder by Maoists while being chased by ultras on a fateful night, in the CBSE curriculum for Class 5.

“The syllabus will be introduced from the coming academic session,” a spokesman of the Chhattisgarh government said on Monday.

“It is an honour for her and my family that her bravery has found place in government school book,” her father, Avdesh Gautam, said.

Anjali, then 14, took her younger brother Abhijeet on her shoulder and started running out of her house in Nakulnar village in Dantewada district after around 500 armed ultras invaded the building looking for her father at midnight on July 7, 2010.

The rebels barged into the room where her uncle and a domestic help were sleeping and shot both of them dead. The insurgents then broke open her room and started firing. Her brother was hit by bullets in his left leg. Notwithstanding the situation, Anjali carried her injured brother on her shoulder and waded through the armed Naxals. She refused to pay heed to the warnings by the Naxals of shooting her if she did not stop. Later, she ran to her grandfather’s house, a few meters away, even as bullets whizzed past her. She collapsed out of exhaustion after reaching her grandfather’s house. The next morning her grandfather rushed her injured brother to the district headquarters hospital. Her parents fortunately had escaped from the Naxal attack. She was honoured in 2011with the National Bravery Award by then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.