JOIN USCoronavirus Lockdown: Bihar girl, who carried her father for 1,200 km on cycle may become health ambassador
The gutsy girl from Bihar, Jyoti Kumari, who brought her ailing father from Gurugram to Darbhanga, pedalling over 1200 kms, is likely to get the tag of health ambassador. An indication in this regard was given by Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Ashwini Choubey. “Jyoti’s courage and determination is exemplary. The Health Ministry may consider her making its brand ambassador,” said Choubey.
Jyoti has been floored with offers from the Centre, State Government as well as Cycle Federation of India (CFI) after news of her cycling for seven days and carrying her ailing father (on the cycle’s carrier) from Haryana to Bihar, covering a distance of around 1200 kms, was published in a vernacular daily.
Later, the 15-year-old gutsy girl got global attention too when Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka tweeted about her courageous feat. “This beautiful feat of endurance & love has captured the imagination of Indian people and the cycling federation!” tweeted Ivanka, who is also an advisor to President Trump and has visited India twice: in 2017 and then again in February 2020.
The Cycle Federation of India, meanwhile, has offered her to come over to New Delhi to appear for a trial next month. “If Jyoti qualifies in the trial, she will be selected as a trainee at the State-of-the-art National Cycling Academy at Indira Gandhi International Stadium complex in New Delhi,” said CFI chief Onkar Singh.
Jyoti has, however, sought one-month time from the CFI to think over the offer as she is currently “mentally and physically exhausted.”
“More than anything, I am happy to have got admission in Class IXth in Darbhanga,” says Jyoti, who had to discontinue her education after Class VIIIth due to family problems.
Of all the five brothers and sisters, Jyoti had been taking care of her father Manoj Paswan, who used to drive an e-rickshaw at Gurugram in Haryana but was out of work after an accident and had to return his vehicle to the owner. “I told my father we would die of hunger, if we stayed in Haryana. So, I started for Bihar (with my father on the cycle carrier) on May 8th evening and reached Darbhanga on May 15th night,” she signs off.