Barring an iconic 13.5-inch golden trophy bearing the statute of Oscar and three bighas of ‘gifted’ land, Pinki Sonkar, the girl born with a cleft lip in Uttar Pradesh’s Mirzapur district, who was the star of the famous documentary, ‘Smile Pinki’, is left with nothing.
Smile Pinki, a 2008 film which depicted the story of Pinki and Ghutaru, two children in rural India who received corrective surgery for cleft lips, won in the best documentary category in Oscars 2009.
Grappling with extreme poverty and working on the same piece of gifted land, Pinki, now 21, feels her Cinderella fairytale has ended and her life is a story “full of false promises, poverty, hardships and short-lived fame”.
‘NEVER SKIP OSCARS, REMINDS ME OF THE TIME I ONCE LIVED’
As the Oscar awards were announced on Sunday, Pinki relived her moments of glory. “Those were the best moments of my life. It was like a fairytale in real life. Boarding a flight, trip to Los Angeles, wearing expensive clothes, staying in plush hotels, enjoying a variety of food that my father and I could not even imagine and meeting neatly dressed people — it was like the story of Cinderella, the bedtime story for kids. I make sure that I watch the Oscar awards every year, as it’s the only way to relive the moments, which I once lived. But, in no time, the fairytale ended and I was back to my real life, which is full of pain, trauma and poverty,” said Pinki, a Class 12 student, who spends most of the time after school working in the fields.
‘WAS TREATED AS AN OUTCAST, CALLED HONTH KATIYA’
Pinki, who hails from Mirzapur’s Rampur Dhabahi village, was born with a cleft lip, a condition that affects tens of thousands of children born in India every year. In these babies, the lips or the palate (the roof of the mouth) do not join together during their development in the womb.
“I was socially ostracised because of my deformity. I remember being treated as an outcast by my schoolmates. My relatives didn’t want me around and used to consider me ‘inauspicious’. People used to call me ‘honth katiya’ and mock me. I was lucky to be spotted by an NGO, Smile Train India, and a Varanasi-based plastic surgeon Subodh Kumar Singh, one of its associates, who performed my surgery for free. The NGO freed me from the trauma. That is how my story was picked up by the documentary film director. It made me world famous,” Pinki tells News18.
WHEN ‘SMILE PINKI’ WON THE OSCAR AWARD
American documentary filmmaker Megan Mylan, who is known for ‘Simple as Water’ and ‘Lost Boys of Sudan’, shot the documentary in 2008, after she found out about GS Memorial Hospital in UP’s Varanasi, a centre supported by Smile Train India, and Dr Singh’s more than 10,000 corrective surgeries.
In one of her interviews, the American documentary filmmaker called working with Pinki, who was just five years old then, one of the most amazing experiences of her life. “I remember she gave me a big hug after the award ceremony, saying that it was all possible because of me,” said Pinki, recalling her encounter with fame.
2013 brought another memorable moment when she was invited to toss the coin for the men’s singles final at the Wimbledon Championships, London. “This was another and the last honour I got in life,” she said.
THE SHORT-LIVED FAME STORY
On her return to her village, Pinki saw people queuing up outside her house. District administration officials gifted her three bighas of land and politicians, including then UP Chief Minister Mayawati, made tall promises, including construction of hospital, pucca roads and community centre in the village.
“I read in the newspaper that the then UP Chief Minister had announced the adoption of Pinki. Some politicians announced the development of my village. Recently, there was news that Anupriya Patel, minister of state for commerce and industries, who was elected to the Lok Sabha from Mirzapur in 2019, had announced that Pinki would be the brand ambassador for ‘Beti Padhao, Beti Bachao’ programme. But nothing happened. Nobody came to adopt her or to make her a brand ambassador,” said Rejendra Kumar Sonkar, Pinki’s father.
Pinki’s father is a farmer and owns a small two-room house in Rampur Dhabahi, which doesn’t even have a door.
WELFARE SCHEMES, A FAR-FETCHED DREAM
Pinki calls development a far-fetched dream for her village, which lacks basic amenities. “I have read that under Har Ghar Jal Yojna, water taps are being provided to every house. But the welfare scheme is yet to reach our village. My house doesn’t have a water connection, we have to walk around 300 meters to the nearby well to fetch water for our daily needs,” she said.
Besides, she also claimed that her family couldn’t get a house under the Awas Yojana, following the errors in the list of beneficiaries, as the names of her father and uncle were missing. “Pinki bitiya has made us all proud, she represented Rampur Dhabahi on an international level. I am trying my best to get Pinki’s father and uncle listed,” said Kunj Bihari Singh, village head of Rampur Dhabahi.
‘WILL BEAT POVERTY ONE DAY’
Pinki, however, acknowledges the support from Mamta Carroll, vice-president and regional director for Asia, Smile Train India, which has helped in her studies so far.
While in Class 12, Pinki is clueless whether she will be able to complete her higher studies. She is, however, confident that she will “beat poverty one day and help unfortunates like her”.
