32 SOMERVILLE MAGAZINE
Birth of an Activist
In 2021, Pratishtha Deveshwar (2020, MPP Public Policy) received The Diana Award, the UK’s highest honour recognising the next generation of humanitarian changemakers. Here she tells the story of how she became an activist and found her way to Oxford.
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tudents aren’t famous for their love of washing-up. But I bet I disliked it more than most when I first came to Oxford. You see, I hadn’t done the dishes on my own – or changed a bed, or done the laundry – since a car accident left me unable to walk aged thirteen. Living alone for the first time, I found all these routines incredibly hard – and that’s without even mentioning the challenge of reading for a Master’s in Public Policy! Then again, I’m no stranger to overcoming obstacles. Let me tell you my story. After the car accident, I spent four months in hospital – followed by three years confined to my bed. At first, I wasn’t allowed to sit up more than fifteen minutes a day. Going to school was impossible, because it wasn’t wheelchair accessible. People kept telling my parents to face facts and buy me a shop, so I might at least have a livelihood. Never mind what I wanted: a career, marriage, travel; all these things were unthinkable according to conventional wisdom. But I had always loved school – and I knew instinctively that the only way out of my situation was through the power of education. My parents were amazing – my first, truest allies on the path to becoming an activist! They supported me as I worked with teachers and friends to find a way of continuing my studies. Once we found a system that worked, I worked all day, every day, only taking breaks for meals or phone calls with friends. When I couldn’t read any more, my mother read to me. It was tough, but eventually I graduated top of my class. My next challenge was getting to university. Here, again, I had to overcome prejudice. What was the point, people said, in sending a young woman like me to university? Those people just saw the wheelchair; they never looked beyond it to the contents of my mind or my heart.
Photo by John Cairns
