The student, Rohila Hembram, has been entrusted with the sole responsibility of conducting the puja at her school-Dalla Chandramohan High School, which has maintained a tradition of breaking archaic rules for quite a while now.
Previously, non-brahmin teachers -- irrespective of their gender conducted the puja.
In the puja, Rohila will be assisted by another non-Brahmin teacher, Binay Bishwas. To get over discrimination, all students, irrespective of their gender, caste and religion will take part in the rituals and festivities, as instructed by headmaster Joydeb Lahiri.
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Lahiri said he joined the school as the headmaster in 2010. He said, "When I joined the school as the headmaster there was a Brahmin priest for the Puja, but he had several demands, after which I decided to do it myself for Rs 1."
"Since then, I encouraged all non-Brahmins to take part in conducting the Puja. And this has been the tradition for the past five-six years now. Non-Brahmin teachers have been doing the Puja for all these years, and this year, I have passed it on to Rohila."
Jaydeb Lahiri also spoke about how the school had been fighting to kick off social evils for a long time. He said, apart from battling discrimination, the students and teachers of the school have struggled hard to de-root child marriages in the village. He added, "I can proudly say there is and will not be any case of child marriage within 10 km of the school. I, along with other teachers, have been able to root out the problem completely. At least five girl students in the school stopped their own marriages, fought with their families and continued studies."
Rohila Hembram expresses her joy:
While speaking to an eminent news agency with the tribal student who will be doing the Puja this year said, "I am happy and excited to have been chosen for the task this year. I am fortunate that Jaydeb sir chose me this year."
When asked about how she was preparing for the day, she said, "Jaydeb sir is helping me. He also gave me a book titled, 'Nijer Pujo Nije Korun'(Do your own puja), also I have met Bimay sir, and he will help me too."
Speaking about her school, she said, "Our school always does social work. Our teachers speak to parents to encourage them to send their children to school."
Interestingly, such steps are being taken by a school which is in a remote village in Dalla, in Malda's Habibpur block just four kilometres from the Bangladesh border. The village mainly comprises tribals, Namashudras, and other scheduled tribes and scheduled castes.
The school that fights social evils with spirit and determination has now set its sights on religious and gender discrimination. Last year a non-Brahmin teacher, Ratan Sikdar, officiated the Saraswati Puja (assisted by others).