Early Life<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Nirmal Chandel is a resident of Himachal Pradesh, widowed at the young age of 23. Her husband died of a heart attack at 30 years old, just after two years of marriage, and soon her life turned upside down. She was isolated from the rest of the family and shifted to a dimly lit room. However, the room was improper and did not even have a fan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She was not allowed to eat with the rest of the family, meet other people, wear colorful clothes, or even bindi. She considered ending her depressing life as she could see no hope. Her parents showed their backs to her, and her in-laws already considered her a burden. This changed when one of her friends urged her to join an NGO, SUTRA (Social Upliftment through Rural Action).<\/p>\n\n\n\n She was there trained and hired as an accountant. This shocked Nirmal as she was the only metric pass and thought she would only be given a small assistant role. Nevertheless, Nirmal took on this challenge, learned everything about accountancy, and started working. This newly found independence of hers was resisted by her family, who offered her a monthly allowance in exchange for her giving up the job. But Nirmal had other plans and wanted to help other widows too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The same year, SUTRA asked her to attend a single women rally convention in Rajasthan. She was not open to the idea as she thought they were only sending her because she was a widow. But soon, she changed her mind and considered it a learning experience as she had never been out of her state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n