When Girls can't wear Footwear

Triveni , Chandini Chatria, Jayashree Jhankar and Laila Majhi are those girls from the Chakotia Bhunjia community in Orissa state of India who dared to go against the customs of their tribe, in fact they started wearing Footwear / Chappals which is considered a taboo in their community. For their this act they and their families have now been ostracized by their community.

Initially, when these girls went to school wearing School dress and Chappals, the entire village was against it. Gradually a few villagers started supporting them indirectly but may be due to the threat of ostracism they could not come to the forefront.

Education is not encouraged among the Chakotia Bhunjia people. The male literacy rate stands at 51.51 percent and the female literacy rate is just 18.27 percent.

For Laila Majhi, who joined the three girls this year, it was difficult to convince her own family members. For many days nobody spoke to her and as she wore Chappals, she was not even allowed inside the kitchen. But she had the support of her mother, who eventually convinced the father. "The immense courage shown by Jayashree, Triveni and Chandini has really encouraged me," said Laila.

These families have already brought their ostracism to the notice of their elected representative, block development officer and collector but this has not yield any results.

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