Hemlata Patel is also making the women of the village self-reliant by giving employment through the Pink Women Self Help Group. Hemlata says that during the 2017 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, she had also raised the issue of 50% reservation for women in Panchayat elections.Praising Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi, Patel says that her life changed a lot when Priyanka Gandhi became the in-charge of Uttar Pradesh. “She was very impressed by my social service and activism on women’s issues and she invited me to Lucknow. Here Priyanka Gandhi ji asked me to join the Congress party which was an honour for me,” Patel recalls.Sunita Verma, a member of the Gulabi gang, says that “Didi” has taught her to fight for her rights, she gives us a lot of courage and energy. Sudha Patel, a woman from Hemlata’s organization, says that “the schools in the village today are all due to the hard work of Didi, our children today go to the school in the village, earlier they had to go to the school built in another village”.Shehnaaz, another woman from Hemlata’s village, says, “We are not so educated, Hemlata didi has got our work done from pension to making ration card.”Hemlata Patel believes the woman must be strong, only then a family will be strong.
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