Choti hi job kariye, par job kariye — kam se kam apne kharch ke liye to kariye.”
That’s Kumkum’s heartfelt advice to every young woman still waiting for the “perfect” job.
Despite being a B.Ed postgraduate and CTET-qualified, Kumkum spent two years at home, doing household chores and preparing for government exams that never yielded results. In her village near Mijwan, that’s often where dreams end. Marriage is seen as the next and only step.
But Kumkum decided to rewrite the script.
When she heard about the 3-month BPO training by RuralShores Skills Academy in Mijwan, she grabbed the opportunity—despite the odds. She lived 25 km away. Her day began at 4 a.m.—cooking, cleaning, caring for her elderly grandparents. By 7, she’d step out, walking 5 km to catch a bus and walking another 3 km after that—just to reach the center by 9 a.m.
“It was tough—but I was determined.”
She was nervous about English. She struggled to understand.
“I couldn’t even follow simple instructions in class,” she recalls. “But we practiced. We supported each other. Slowly, I started responding in English.”
That determination paid off.
Kumkum cleared her first job interview with 3i Infotech in NOIDA—on her very first try.
“It felt like getting a government job!” she beams.
Today, Kumkum lives in NOIDA with two other girls from her village. She supports her family financially and recently brought her sister to the city to explore better options too.
Her transformation hasn’t gone unnoticed.
“Now people in my village ask my parents, ‘Can your daughter help ours find a job too?’”
From being an unemployed graduate in a remote village to becoming a confident, working woman in a metro city—Kumkum isn’t waiting for opportunities anymore. She’s creating them—for herself and others.
~Interviewed by Shweta Sharma
