Jyoti Yadav, a teenager who has made an extraordinary contribution to the Society.
Jyoti Yadav’s mission began even before she was born. That's when Jyoti's father passed away and her 17-year old mother had to face challenges.
Jyoti, now a thirteen year old, grew up in a village in Rajasthan where her mother, was banished from attending marriage ceremonies, not allowed to wear colourful clothes, her very presence was considered an ill-omen, and she was not even served meals at public functions being a widow. It was then that Jyoti realized the humiliation and disrespect widows faced in society and decided to take a stand and fight for the rights of her mother and other women like her in their village.
Since she was too young to know how to bring about change towards the mindset and social practices in the region, Jyoti approached the head teacher in her school and the Sarpanch of her village who were more-than-willing to help her organize meetings to rid the village of this age-old custom.
In 2010, Jyoti started campaigning for this cause. She went from house to house, door to door in her effort to try convincing and negotiating with people to change their attitude towards widows. Being a young girl, Jyoti faced social challenges to break the taboo of the male chauvinist society. She was small and speaking to elders with set mindset was definitely proving to be great deal of work. Despite of the physical attack on her, she was undeterred. With every new day her spirit would become stronger to bring social justice to women like her mother. It wasn’t easy though as she received opposition, lashings and harassment.
Her efforts finally paid off. Widows are now employed as anganwadi workers and are paid monthly salary of Rs 3,500.

In recognition of her efforts, Jyoti became a National Honouree at the Pramerica Spirit of Community Awards 2012, an international contest for student-led community initiatives, and represented India in Washington DC .

Jyoti is just 13 but carried the weight of such grave issues on her slender shoulders. Issues as serious as the plight of widows in a traditional, male-dominated society where they have no say. This Class eight student decided to change the way widows are viewed through her “Widow Empowerment” campaign.

I am not saying, that we all should try and become another Jyoti Yadav. We must be inspired to so do similar service to our society. Whether big or small tackle issue that will matter towards our future. Diligently, with respect and help one another. We all drag about the problems we have in our lives, not really caring even to know about the person right next to us, who might be facing much more than us.
To become a good human being we don’t need to make great issues or contributions which are published nationwide, rather we can do small things in our own way which is of some significance and adds value in lives. On this note I call upon you to pray for every soul amongst us to become stronger and sincere.