Beyond the Badge: The Grit of Sandhya Marawi, a Woman Who Refused to Stop Living
Beyond the Badge: The Grit of Sandhya Marawi, a Woman Who Refused to Stop Living
Beyond the Badge: The Grit of Sandhya Marawi, a Woman Who Refused to Stop Living
When Sandhya Marawi lost her husband in 2016, grief arrived without mercy—and without a pause button. Life did not slow down to let her mourn. Three children still needed food, school fees still had to be paid, and each day still demanded strength she was not sure she had. So Sandhya did what survival required. She stood up, chose work over despair, and walked into a world few women dared to enter.
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Wearing a red porter’s shirt and Badge No. 36 pinned to her chest, Sandhya became a railway porter—known locally as a “coolie”—in Madhya Pradesh. It is a job dominated almost entirely by men, defined by physical strain and long, unforgiving hours. Yet every day, she shoulders luggage often heavier than her own body, navigating the busy railway stations of Jabalpur and Katni.
Her mornings begin far from the platforms. Sandhya travels nearly 40 to 45 kilometers from the Kundam area just to reach her place of work. By the time she arrives, the real labor begins—lifting, pulling, rushing between trains, and earning small amounts per load carried. By evening, her shoulders ache, her feet throb, and exhaustion weighs her down.
But the workday does not end there.
She returns home to another shift entirely—cooking meals, checking homework, and becoming “mother” again. There are no applause breaks, no rest days for grief, no room for weakness. Just quiet persistence.
Online, debates swirl about whether Sandhya Marawi is “India’s first lady coolie.” But titles miss the point. History records firsts; life records endurance. What Sandhya represents is not novelty, but courage—the kind that shows up daily without cameras or recognition.
Her story is not about breaking records. It is about refusing to break.
In a society where loss often silences women, Sandhya chose motion over surrender. She chose to keep going when stopping might have been easier. And sometimes, that is the bravest act of all.
Beyond the Badge: The Grit of Sandhya Marawi, a Woman Who Refused to Stop Living
