From Poverty to UN: An Inspiring tale of Supriya Das Dutta of Tripura
Supriya Das Dutta, the Sabhadhipati of the Zilla Parishad of Sepahijala district in Tripura, has emerged as a symbol of pride for the country, as she will represent India at the Population Development Commission session as part of the 57th session of the United Nations at its headquarters in New York.
She has been invited to participate in discussions on Population Development, scheduled to commence on April 29 and continue until May 3.
In the session, Supriya Das Dutta will represent the country along with two other Indian women. They are Kunuku Hema Kumari, Gram Pradhan (Sarpanch) of Pekeru Gram Panchayat under West Godavari district in Andhra Pradesh and Neeru Yadav, Gram Pradhan (Sarpanch) of Lambi Ahir Gram Panchayat in Jhunjhunu district in Rajasthan.
All of them were nominated by the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, Government of India, Additional Director of State Panchayat Department Prasun Dey informed the media on Sunday.
Dey also remarked that she is a born leader and tried to make some basic changes relating to the attitude of administration and society towards women to create a women-friendly Panchayat. Supriya Das Dutta, he added, is instrumental in creation of various forums for women.
Supriya Das Dutta, daughter of Shital Das, a day labourer of Laxmibeel, Bishalgarh, grew up struggling hard with poverty, yet, she passed the secondary examination in the first division. In 2005, she got married to Uttam Dutta, a small trader dealing in electric equipment from Champamura in Bishalgarh.
Supriya Das Dutta said due to the encouragement received from her in-laws, she passed D-Pharma from Bengaluru. She observed it is a big deal for a married woman to go for study outside the State and also taking out time to serve the public as an elected representative. She got this opportunity since her husband and in-laws are very sensible and cooperative people.
She remarked, "If every girl's in-laws are of such kind, then domestic violence will not happen in this society. This moral education received from her father and in-law's house has inspired him to remain engaged in public service.
Sepahijala Zilla Sabhadhipati Supriya Das Dutta left for Delhi on Sunday to attend the meeting in the USA.
Before leaving the state, she said in an interview that in the summit, she would deliberate issues such as women's empowerment and gender inequality, including the role, leadership and impact of women in the development process in the country.
She added, since she got the opportunity to work under the Panchayati Raj system as an elected representative in 2019, she has been working on these issues with utmost importance.
Das Dutta further said that India can achieve excellence only if the rural women are economically self-reliant and established. And this is what the central and state governments of the country want and work is continuing in materialisation of this policy and concepts.
Supriya Das Dutta said plans have been adopted at the grassroots level and implemented for the overall welfare of the rural people to meet up basic needs of the people of rural areas such as house, water, health, education and communication infrastructure in accordance with the policies and programs of the Ministry of Panchayati Raj,
The Panchayati Raj system has also extended ample opportunity to women towards becoming self-reliant.
In Sepahijala district, she added, self-help groups are being formed among women with the aim of covering 100% household coverage, to make womenfolk economically self-reliant. Furthermore, she held that women also have to come forward to catch the emergent potential of opportunities.
Supriya Dutta’s son Udayan is studying in class 9. However, she cannot give enough time for his son as she has to remain engaged with the work of the district council and the society throughout the day. Failure to spend much time with her son has sometimes pained her, beyond which she has no regrets in life.
Asked about her feeling of representing the country in such a big international session, she said, "I am very proud to have got this opportunity".
She said that her family members, her in-laws and people in the village have already come to know about this. They are also proud of Supriya Devi getting this opportunity. Also, many people came to her house and greeted her.
(Tripura, Tripura News)