Lakshmi is the first woman garbage truck driver of India, who has taken the pledge to clean the waste of the society. This story is about her courage and determination.
Name: Lakshmi
Profession: Waste Collector
Amazing Information about Lakshmi:
Says who, that you need to be on a top position to be famous? It is your courage and determination to do common things uncommonly that makes you popular. Lakshmi is the first garbage collector who will be driving a garbage truck in Bengaluru. She is trained by Hasiru Dala, the organization that focuses on the improvement of issues faced by waste workers. Lakshmi has also worked at Kempegowda Institute of Medical Sciences, in its housekeeping staff.
Lakshmi has three proud children. It is her willingness to learn things and strength to fight all odds that has brought her here today from a rag picker. She was always passionate to learn driving but, all her efforts lead to dismay. The challenges did not break her attitude to keep going. Her confident smile keeps it all. Very proudly she got herself clicked with her first driving license.
She was married at a tender age. Due to financial stress and alcoholic husband, she had to drop her daughter from the school. Her daughter, who is 15, is enrolled for a tailoring course by Hasiru Dala organization.
A woman who did not know to remove the garbage of stress from her life will today remove the garbage from the society and help us live healthy. Now, that’s a strong message that she has to pass to the people. No one is big or small in life; it is our thinking ability that lets us see things in a different manner.
Despite her own challenges, she has taken the pledge to improve the livelihood of people.
Motivational Factor:
When I first read about Lakshmi, I thought similar to what most of the common people would think; she is a garbage collector and what is so interesting about her. But, somewhere after knowing the objective behind her choice of role, I got goose bumps. A woman who is illiterate, poor, and who has never driven a bicycle, is taking the pledge to keep the country clean by learning to drive a heavy garbage truck that is about 20 tons. On the other end, we have an educated mass who finds it lazy to throw the garbage in the garbage bins. People throw litter anywhere they are comfortable. We have never thought of those people who take the task of picking up our wastes.
Despite the challenges, garbage collectors like Lakshmi perform their duty without a complaint of word. My respect to her! Although, we cannot do much about changing the current condition of our society issues, but the first step must begin from your home. I have neighbors who throw garbage in the surrounding grounds. They find it lazy to go till the garbage bins provided by the government. It is sick to make them believe that the germs and diseases do not read the name plates to skip knocking at their door.
We have read about the hazardous diseases out of garbage and we must take precautionary steps to eradicate these issues. This will be one of the major contributions from our end to make our life better and the life of garbage collectors too. If a garbage collector like Lakshmi can think of taking a major step to drive such a heavy vehicle for the betterment of our society, why can’t we begin by keeping the country clean by using proper disposal bags and disposal bins?
Lakshmi could have taken any other wrong step for herself or her children. Under financial pressure, some women enter prostitution and even force their daughters to do it. Lakshmi is a big set of example for all those women, who excuse themselves of being weak or poor. In a broad sense, if a woman like her can drive a truck loaded with others’ garbage, why are we sulking to load our own garbage of life?
All I want people to know is that we must take such people as our inspiration and keep going in life irrespective of the failures and challenges. No one is completely happy in this world. Happiness is just a state of mind and it begins from your own will. I hope this story will make you inspired a little at least of being a responsible citizen.
