Ramabai had never received formal training as a runner. She had no running shoes or sportswear, and was wearing a sari and ordinary sandals when she entered the race.
Her daughter, who studies in Nanded, had been asking her for money to buy books for several days. Ramabai said she could not afford to send her to the race because she had no money.
The daughter reportedly stopped speaking to her mother for eight days. Ramabai then decided she would enter the race herself and try to win the prize money.
During the three-kilometre race, her sandals repeatedly slipped off. Eventually, she carried them in her hands and continued running barefoot. She finished first and received a cash prize of 3,000 Indian rupees.
When asked what she did with the money, Ramabai said she gave the entire amount to her daughter to buy books. For Ramabai, the race was about much more than winning a competition. It was another chapter in a life shaped by hardship and responsibility.
Her husband died in 2012, leaving her responsible for her two young daughters and the household. Ramabai had studied only until the seventh grade, but she remained determined that her daughters should continue their education.
She worked wherever she could find employment, including labouring in other people’s fields and picking soybeans for daily wages.
For the past year, she has been working as a cook at Gyan Deep Academy in Ambajogai. Her elder daughter is preparing for police recruitment exams at the same academy, while her younger daughter is preparing for competitive examinations in Nanded.
Ramabai says her biggest wish is to see both daughters become financially independent and build lives different from her own.
“I want to provide my daughters with a safe and secure life,” she said. “They should not have to work in mud, heat and rain like I did.”
Her barefoot race quickly became a symbol of a mother’s determination. A video of her running went viral on social media, drawing praise across Maharashtra and attracting attention from Indian media outlets.
But writer and researcher Somnath Kolwe has argued that the story should not be viewed only as an inspiring tale of determination.
He said Ramabai’s struggle also raises questions about the social and economic conditions that forced a mother to run a race simply to afford educational supplies for her daughter.
According to Kolwe, people may celebrate the mother’s determination while overlooking the circumstances that made such a struggle necessary.
Ramabai’s story, he argued, reflects the difficulties faced by countless women who work every day in farms, informal jobs and daily-wage labour to support their children’s education.
The story therefore raises a broader question: should a mother have to depend on winning a 3,000-rupee prize to buy books for her child?
Kolwe also stressed that announcing government welfare and education programmes is not enough unless their benefits actually reach the people who need them.
Despite the attention she has received, Ramabai continues to work as a cook and save money for her daughters’ education.
For her, the message remains simple: as long as she has the strength to keep going, she will continue doing whatever she can to ensure her daughters receive an education.
