Four-year-old girl unmasks govt apathy during I-Day role play

A video of a four-year-old girl, in a traditional tribal getup, voicing the issues of her fellow villagers on stage during the Independence Day celebration in Koraput has gone viral on social media. 

In the purported video, the girl can be seen enacting how the government officials keep on promising and then go back on their promises. The girl, who has been identified as Sonali Das, a student of Koraput Saraswati Sishu Mandir, can be seen narrating the true picture of Dasamantapur block. She can be seen describing the problems the people of her block are facing. 

“There is no road connectivity to our village. We are facing problems. We don’t have drinking water facility. There is no well or tube well in our village. We are collecting water from a pit. Whenever anyone falls ill, we carry him on a cot to medical. As there is no telecom tower, we can’t use mobile phones. The government officials are telling about the development of the village. But no development has taken place in our village,” she said.

 In the video, the invited guests including Odisha Agriculture Minister Ranendra Pratap Swain, MLA Raghuram Podal and the district Collector Abddal M. Akhtar can be seen smiling and enjoying the girl’s enactment. 

Social media users have been heaping praises on her for her effort and confidence with which she enacted her role before the invited guests at the Independence Day celebration. 

When asked about her performance, she said she delivered her performance confidently, without any fear.

In this regard, no reactions from the district administration could be obtained.