Teeja's husband (she calls him 'Maalik'--meaning master) has never interfered in his wife's work. Rather he is very proud of her achievements. He has always co-operated with his wife in all her social work and fight for the rights of the villagers. He, along with other villagers, also encouraged her to fight the elections for the panchayat membership.
Teeja enjoys working for the betterment of her people. She finds meetings and interactions with other people/groups very stimulating--"By talking with others I increase my knowledge and also put forward my views with confidence". She teaches in the kisan schools of 19 blocks where she trains other women in farming techniques and in making organic manure and pesticides.
Teeja has been an active leader of the Aaroh campaign, which has helped her not only improve her knowledge and understanding but also to mobilize other women farmers. She has always displayed strong leadership qualities and challenged irregularities/corruption rampant in many government departments. Teeja's life is a veritable treasure of real life personal anecdotes--each one being more inspiring than the other.
Some of her notable achievements:
(i) For the past 25-30 years Teeja has been on the board of members of the gram panchayat (village council). But when she stood for elections for the first time she faced a tough time--"When I went to file my nomination papers I was told that my name was not in the voters' list. I had been living in the village for so many years and my name was not in the voters' list! I refused to take this lying low. When the Block Development Officer (BDO) paid no heed to my protestations, I went to the DM's (district magistrate) office with an application. He was very helpful and got me the Vidhan Sabha elections voters' list, which obviously had my name. Now the BDO had no option but to accept my papers. But on the election day when I went to cast my vote I was again told that my name was not in the village voters' list, even though it was on the list given to me by the DM.
When I refused to be cowed down, I was advised to go to the Block Pramukh. It was already 4pm but I went by cycle to the Block Pramukh's office. The guard said it was impossible to get the village voters list that day. I told him that I was going to appeal to the DM. This created some fear in the people who were sitting there with the guard. Even though they made fun of me when I told them that I was a candidate for member of gram panchayat and my election symbol was 'chair', they had to search for the correct voters list, which was eventually found buried under stacks of papers in the room of the BDO. But I knew that by the time I would reach my village it would already be past the voting time of 5pm. So I went to the police station and told them my problem. They sent two policemen with me. Accompanied by the policemen I went to the polling booth.
The same persons who would not allow me to cast my vote earlier in the day stood up with folded hands and let me do the needful. If that day I had behaved as an illiterate and stupid villager I would have lost the battle. I was elected as a member of the panchayat. After that I stood for elections five times and won every time (a member is elected once every 5 years)".
(ii) There was a chak road of the gram samaj in her village. The gram pradhan (Village Head) of the village was getting some construction done on this land for the pradhan of a nearby village to whom he had probably sold that government land. When Teeja heard about this illegal construction being done (chak road is a public thoroughfare on government land that cannot be sold or used for any construction), she confronted the pradhan and threatened to go to the police station if construction was not stopped. She was told that the area was not marked as a chak road. She went to the Lekhpal in Rustampur who also reiterated the same thing. With her presence of mind, she then asked him to show her the map, even though she knew she could not read it. But this did the trick--the lekhpal was taken aback. He had not expected this from an illiterate person like Teeja. He had to show her the map and accept that it was indeed a chak road. He had no option but to get the construction stopped. In this way Teeja managed to stop illegal usurping of government land.
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