This is a story of a lady who is recently seen in a viral video fixing tires. She is called ‘Iron Lady of Mountain’ and her name is Kamala Negi. She has become an example for everyone. A trade that men usually do, is something this iron lady is getting her hands on and doing it well since 2004, she fixes punctured tyres of all kinds of vehicles.
Below is the original article published in Hindi:
https://haldwanilive.com/story-of-kamala-negi-in-mukteshwar/
Although the women of the hills have always stood shoulder to shoulder with the men in the field of work, Kamala Negi, a resident of Odakhan, Ramgarh block of Nainital district of Uttarakhand, India, has set a different example. Because of Kamala’s work, people know her as the Iron Lady of the mountain.
54-year-old Kamala Negi has been doing this work for small and big vehicles for the last 15 years now. Kamala easily makes the punctures of tires from cycles, cars, trucks, and JCB machines in a few minutes. She even does bike and car servicing. Kamala has done the work of showing a mirror to the men while doing this work of the men’s dominant society.
Tourists are also pretty impressed by seeing Kamala as she is the only woman running a puncture shop covering a large area.
When Kamala started this work in the year 2004., all she had was a bicycle to rent. She used to rent bicycles to the children and whenever the cycle got punctured she used to fix it herself. Gradually, she continued to experience this, and Kamala, who started with one bicycle, is now fixing punctures of trucks as well. Apart from her own shop, when needed Kamala fixes punctured tires of vehicles for others as well. Her house is near her shop and because of this, the tourists get a lot of benefits, as she doesn’t really close her service. In her family, there is a son along with her husband and a daughter who is now married. Another son that she has is defending the country in the Indian Army. Husband Hayat Singh does farming and horticulture work.
Kamala is earning a name in a field dominated by men. Usually, you may not have seen women fixing punctures, but Kamala operates extensive tools alone. Kamla has shown that there is nothing that women can’t do and we also believe the same.
Women’s power is yet to show its real might, we along with our Prime Minister of India promote the movement of educating girls so that they can become more confident and able.