GASHO KHURD (HARYANA):
Neelam Verma
has every qualification needed to be a teacher. She had also cleared the Haryana Teacher Eligibility Test (HTET) seven years ago, but remains jobless at the age of 37. Somewhere along the way, this admirer of freedom fighter Bhagat Singh styled herself 'Neelam Azad' and became involved in various protests, including the farmers' agitation and the fight for the rights of female wrestlers, which led to her detention at Delhi's Jantar Mantar on May 28.
On Wednesday, she was arrested for protesting with smoke canisters outside Parliament.
A native of Gasho Khurd village in Jind district, Neelam is from a backward class and known as "Krantikari Ladki" or revolutionary girl for her activism. Her father is a halwai, while her two younger brothers work as milkmen. Although Neelam holds MA, MPhil, and BEd degrees, she hasn't found a job so far. Her HTET eligibility, which is valid for seven years, ends this year. Neelam has been working for the underprivileged after recovering from a serious spine injury in 2015. She had even exposed an MGNREGA scam. But of all the causes she got involved in, unemployment is the closest to her heart. A family source said she often told them since she wasn't getting a job, "it was better to face death".
The family was unaware of her plan to protest in Delhi. "I spoke to her today, but she didn't reveal she was in Delhi," her mother Saraswati Devi told TOI.
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