Shampa by his side, Dilip Ghosh carries a pitcher of water as part of his new job. Picture by Amit Biswas

Mayakhol (Nadia), Feb. 11: Dilip Ghosh cannot see his daughter’s tears but could feel her pain.

When Shampa threw away her schoolbag because her poor parents couldn’t afford to send her to school, the 45-year-old, blind since birth, decided he would go to any length to let his daughter live her dream.

The family — Dilip has another daughter, four-year-old Swapna, and a son, two-year-old Rupam — had been struggling to survive on Rs 10-20 a day, which his wife Fultuli earned by selling shaak (spinach).

Last month, the couple decided to pull their only school-going child out of Anandanagar High School in Nadia’s Dhubulia, about 120km from Calcutta, as they did not have the money to even buy a pencil.

The 11-year-old student of Class V was shattered and dumped her books into a pond.

A pained Dilip became desperate for work. When he heard about the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, under which jobs were being handed for the construction of a road connecting Mayakhol and Krishnagar, he rushed to panchayat pradhan Samar Ghosh.

“We were surprised to see Dilip, who had never worked in his life. What he told us brought tears to our eyes. We were moved by his desperation to get his daughter back in school,” the panchayat chief said.

Dilip’s name was put on the shortlist of 400 men and he began earning Rs 70 a day. Shampa, too, went back to school.

“I am blind but I am determined to send my daughter to school. For that, I can go to any extent of hard labour. My daughter was heartbroken when we stopped her from going to school. One day, she threw her plastic schoolbag into a pond and began crying,” Dilip said.

But, digging and ferrying stone chips on his head was not easy for Dilip. “For three days, we watched Dilip toil. He frequently fell and cut himself. It was a pathetic sight. So, we thought something must be done about him,” said Kartick Ghosh, a panchayat employee and superviser of the road project.

Shampa, too, could not bear to watch her father come home every evening soaked in sweat and blood. So she went to the superviser and told him that she wanted to replace Dilip.

“It was touching to see the little girl come to us and want to work in place of her father. We wrote to the district magistrate, explaining the situation and seeking a different type of a job for Dilip,” the superviser said.

A response came within a couple of days and Dilip was engaged to supply drinking water to labourers.

“We feel proud that Dilip is now working efficiently in our team,” the superviser said.

Dilip said he had never gone out of home to work. When his homeopath father died 12 years ago, he became dependent on his three elder brothers who work as agricultural labourers outside Nadia.

But when his mother died two years ago, his brothers refused to look after him.

“I had married Fultuli, an orphan, shortly before my father died. Since my mother’s death, my wife has been supporting me by selling shaak. It fetches Rs 10-20 a day and we came close to begging. But now I am earning Rs 70 and have sent my daughter back to school,” Dilip said.

Shampa’s teachers, too, are happy to have her back. “She is a good girl. We did not know about the girl’s plight. We have told her that in future if she needs help, we will take her responsibility,” teacher-in-charge Asit Ghosh said.

DM Onkar Singh Meena said Dilip’s case was unique. “He is the only blind man working under the rural job scheme in the district. I have sent a report on Dilip’s story to my superiors.”

Back in school, Shampa knows she has only her father to thank. “I want to study and look after my father when I grow up,” she said.