Bhopal: The saga of the girl from Chhattisgarh’s insurgency-hit district of Dantewada who had braved Naxal bullets to save her younger brother from Maoist attack six years ago, has made it to the school books.
The National Council for Educational Research and Training has incorporated the story of Anjali Singh Gautam, who ran to safety carrying her wounded brother, shot by Maoists, on her shoulder while being chased by ultras on that fateful night, in standard 5 syllabus of CBSE.
The syllabus will be introduced from the coming academic session.
“The syllabus will be introduced from the coming academic session”, a spokesman of the Chhattisgarh government said on Monday. “It is an honour for her and my family that her bravery has found place in government school book”, her father Avdesh Gautam said.
Anjali, then 14, took her young brother Abhijeet on her shoulder, and started running out of her house in Nakulnar village in Dantewada district, after around 500 armed ultras invaded the building looking for her father in the midnight of July 7, 2010.
The rebels barged into the room where her uncle and a domestic help were sleeping and shot both of them dead. Then, the insurgents broke open her room and started firing. Her brother received bullets in his left leg. She then carried her injured brother on her shoulder and waded through the armed Naxals. She refused to pay heed to the warnings by the Naxals that they would shoot her if she did not stop.
Later, the brave girl ran to her grandfather’s house, a few meters away, even as bullets whizzed past her.
