By Muskan Gagneja

MAMTA RAWAT: HERO OF BANKHOLI

Mamta Rawat falls perfectly in the bracket of ‘Not All Heroes Wear Capes,’ which denotes Men and Woman from all walks of life, who are superheroes, in their own right! We all have read about the disastrous floods which took place in 2013, in Uttarakhand. Thousands lost their lives that year to the floods and subsequent landslides. Mamta Rawat, a 24-year-old woman, helped rescue hundreds of people from the 2013 floods in the north Indian state of Uttarakhand, where more than 5,000 people are presumed to have died. As we know some so many people help others, who try to save others but they remain unsung in everybody’s life. So today I’ve chosen the story of a girl who lives in the mountains.

Mamta Rawat saw her house getting washed away in the flash floods of 2013 in Uttarakhand. But this did not stop her from climbing extremely dangerous terrains to save thousands of stranded pilgrims and locals. Having been trained in mountaineering. Ms Rawat was at home in her village Bankholi, when she got a call on her mobile phone, saying that a group of school students trekking in the Himalayas were stranded amid torrential rains.

And now the question comes “how did she save the students/children?

• Mamta was able to reach the stranded group quickly and escort them back to safety. However, by the time she returned, floods had begun to engulf the mountainous area and distress calls were coming in thick and fast.
• While on the rescue mission, she carried an unconscious middle-aged woman pilgrim on her back -- like a mountaineer carries a rucksack -- and ran down the rocky terrain for over 3 km to help her get evacuated by a helicopter for further medical treatment

When news channels asked her to help herself, she refused the help about her own house but she asked help for the village in the form of rope/cable to cross the village because all the bridges had been washed away. Mamta, a school dropout, is the sole breadwinner of her six-member family, A part-time trainer for the NIM, she supplements her income by working as a mountain guide for trekking groups. Her choice of profession, however, came with a lot of criticism, especially from members of her community who felt that a woman should not be doing a “man’s job”. Mamta not only was undeterred by the attitude, but she has also gone on to train other young women to be mountain guides as well. Heroes such as Mamta indeed are an inspiration to everyone. Let’s make her famous. Spread the word!