Dashrath Das Manjhi is a laborer who loves his wife very much. He carved a road through his own hill in his village, because his wife died of a delay in medicine due to the hill.
Wiki/Biography
Dashrath Manjhi was born in a Musahar family on January 14, 1929 (Age: 78 years, at the time of death in 2007) in Gehlaur village, Gaya district, Bihar, British India. His family is very poor and belongs to a very low caste (Scheduled Caste) in this region. His family was often tortured by the upper class (Mukhiya or Pradhan) in the village.
Family
Information about his parents is unknown. His wife is Falguni Devi who died as a result of falling from the mountain. He has a son, Bhagirath Manjhi and a daughter. He has a brother.
Bhagirath Manjhi, son of Dashrath Manjhi
story
After seven years of working in Dhanbad, when he returns to his village, he falls in love with Falguni Devi, who surprisingly turns out to be his wife. Falguni Devi’s father refuses to send his daughter to Dashrath Manjhi as he is unemployed. They both run away and start a new life as a family. Until 1960, his wife gave birth to two children. One day, while delivering food to her husband, she fell from the mountain and was seriously injured. Dashrath Manjhi took her to a hospital in a nearby town on the other side of the mountain. But it was too late, due to the lack of timely medicine, he died. Later, he made a strong determination to demolish the mountain and carve a road through it to connect his villagers to the nearby town and hospital so that no one else could suffer this problem again.
At first, people mocked him and called him crazy. However, later, some people came to help him. One of them was Shivu Mishtri who gave Manjhi, hammer and chisel.
Shivu Mishtri, who helped Dashrath Manjhi
To get help from the government, he went to Delhi to meet the then Prime Minister of India, Mrs. Indira Gandhi but was thrown off the train because he was traveling without a ticket. Even so, he walked more than 1000 km to reach Delhi. It took 22 years (from 1960 to 1982) to carve a road through the hills and finally, a road 360 feet long, 30 feet high, and 25 feet wide came out and Dashrath Manjhi became famous. Due to his hard work, the distance between two blocks of Gaya district namely Atri and Wazirganj reduced from 55 km to 15 km.
Death
Due to cancer in the Gallbladder, he died at the AIIMS hospital in New Delhi at the age of 78 on 17 August 2007. After his death, he was given a State Funeral by the Government of Bihar.
Nitish Kumar visits Dashrath Manjhi in hospital
Facts
- In 2006, the Bihar government nominated his name for the Padma Shree award in the social service category.
- Manjhi wants the road made by him to be paved (Pucca) by the government but he cannot see it in his life. After his death in 2007, the government made him pucca.
- When he went to the CM House, CM Nitish Kumar offered his seat to Dashrath Manjhi for a while.
Dashrath Manjhi and Nitish Kumar
- In 2014, the first show of the TV show, Satyameva Jayate, hosted by Amir Khan was dedicated to Dashrath Manjhi. Aamir Khan met Bhagirath Manjhi (Dashrath Manjhi’s son) and his wife, Basanti Devi, and promised to help Manjhi’s family financially. However, later, Basanti Devi died because she did not get proper treatment.
- On the death of his wife, Bhagirath Manjhi said that if Aamir Khan fulfilled his promise, his wife would not have died.
- In 2015, his biopic, titled, ‘Manjhi – The Mountain Man’ was released which was directed by Ketan Mehta and starred Nawazuddin Siddiqui as Dashrath Manjhi and Radhika Apte as Falguni Devi.
Dashrath Manjhi biopic
- The film’s director, Ketan Mehta had promised that he would give 2 percent of the film’s earnings to Dashrath Manjhi’s family but the family received only Rs 1.5 lakh in two installments.
- On 26 December 2016, India Post issued a postage stamp in his honour.
Dashrath Manjhi postage stamp
- An entrance was named after him in honor of the path he carved through a hill in the previous century. A hospital is also named after him.
Dashrath Manjhi Dwar
- In 2017, the statue of Dashrath Manjhi was also inaugurated by the CM, Nitish Kumar.
Categories: Biography
Source: SCHOOL TRANG DAI
