- Sindhutai was married at ten, abandoned by her husband at twenty, became mother at the same age and had nowhere to go. She begged for a living. The Divine however, had different plans for her. She adopted one child and gradually it became a movement. Without any government support and by sharing her life’s story through talks she opened orphanages and brought up over 1,200 children. It only goes to show that life is what you make out of it.
Childhood is a blissful phase of life.
Parents love and pamper their children and make them the centre of their world.
However, the same childhood can be horrifying when a child has no parents.
There is no greater sorrow than being an orphan or leading a life without
shelter. Having said that, the Divine sends people to Mother Earth to make a
difference. Sindhutai is one such person; by becoming a mother to orphans Sindhutai
became God’s gift to thousands of orphaned children.
Who is Sindhutai Sapkal?
She is a renowned and a devoted social worker
who focuses on prioritizing the lives of orphaned children. Her decision to
look after orphaned children was triggered by her own life experiences. During
her childhood Sindhutai went through phases where she missed having someone by
her side. In one of her interviews she said that it was at such times that she
realized what it meant to be abandoned. Having suffered thus, she made it her
life’s mission to stand by needy and homeless children.
Her greatness and kind nature is
reflected in one of her speeches. She said, ‘I am with everyone who has no
other people to look after them’.
Early life and struggles
Sindhutai was born on 14th
November 1948 in a cattle grazing family in Maharashtra’s Wardha district. Her
father was keen to educate her but mother was not. At the age of ten she was
married to a man twenty years her senior. Post marriage she faced a difficult
life but she did not lose hope. In her new home she fought against the
exploitation of local women, who collected cow dung, by the forests department
and landlords.
This only made things more difficult for
her.
At the young age of twenty, when nine-
months pregnant, she was beaten badly and left to die by her husband. She gave
birth to a baby girl Mamta in that semi-conscious state and struggled to stay
alive. Sindhutai took to begging on the streets and railway platforms to survive.
Because she feared being picked up by men at night she often spent the night at
cemeteries. Such was her condition that people called her a ghost since she was
seen at night in the cemeteries.
“In this constant
tussle to survive, she found herself in Chikaldara, situated in the Amravati
district of Maharashtra. Here, due to a tiger preservation project, 84 tribal
villages were evacuated. Amidst the confusion, a project officer impounded 132
cows of Adivasi villagers and one of the cows died. Sindhutai decided to fight
for a proper rehabilitation of the helpless tribal villagers. Her efforts were
acknowledged by the Minister of Forests and he made appropriate arrangements
for alternative relocation.”
It was during these trying times that
she realized how difficult it would be for abandoned children and or orphans
and decided to do something for them. Her
first adopted child was Deepak, whom she found on a railway track. Quite soon
she had adopted sixteen children.
So Sindhutai started taking care of children
in return for some food. Looking after these kids soon became the mission of
her life. She opened her first ashram at Chikaldhara. People who donated money
asked her for a receipt so she realized the need for an NGO.
“So she formed &
registered her first NGO, Savitribai Phule Girls’ Hostel under the Foundation,
Vanvasi Gopalkrushna Shikshan Evam Kreeda Prasarak Mandal in Chikaldhara in
Amravati. Today, her children run four NGOs and Deepak, her first adopted son
who refused to leave her on growing up, has named the second one, Mamta Bal
Bhawan, after her daughter, Mamta. Sindhutai has also formed a cow shelter,
Gopika Gai Rakshan Kendra to save old cows that are being sent to the slaughter
houses. She brings them to the shelter and cares for them.” 1
This way Sindhu became Sindhutai or Maai
or mother of orphans.
Many of her adopted children are now highly
qualified for e.g. doctors and lawyers. Some adopted children have started
orphanages of their own.
When Sindutai’s husband returned and
asked for forgiveness she was gracious enough to forget and forgive.
Sindhutai - A living
example of humanity and love
Sindhutai’s life story is one of
incredible grit and willpower. She showed how adversity brings out the best in
us and dedicated her life to adopting & nurturing orphans. Further, she
constructed more than six orphanages in Maharashtra where orphaned children are
given food, shelter, and education. Her organization also gave shelter to
numerous women, who are destitute and abandoned.
Running these shelter homes is not an
easy task; she works hard to raise funds for her orphanages. Instead of taking
financial help from anyone, she gave powerful and inspiring speeches in the
form of sharing her life’s story. At the end of her speeches, “she spreads the
loose end of her sari and asks for alms to feed and educate her children.” She
appeals to people to help the underprivileged and neglected sections of the
society.
In yet another outstanding speech she said
that she wanted her story to be shared widely so that others are motivated to
overcome the difficulties of life. Her fame has never affected her persona.
Sindhutai’s happiness lies in being with her children, fulfilling their dreams
and settling them down in life.
In spite of a series of struggles that
she faced in fulfilling her mission, Sapkal has adopted over 1,100 orphan
children. Presently, she has a grand family of 207 sons-in-law, 36
daughters-in-law, and more than 1050 grandchildren. The best thing is that many
of them are serving society in different ways. Some of them have become lawyers,
doctors while others started their own shelter homes.
Awards and recognition
Sindhutai’s extensive social work has
been recognized through over 750 awards. She received the prestigious national
award for Iconic Mother and Mother
Teresa Awards for Social Justice in 2013. Sapkal was conferred a Doctorate in Literature
by the DY Patil Institute of Technology and Research, Pune in 2016.
She also got an award known as ‘The Mind
of Steel’ in 2010. True to the award’s name, Sindutai has a mind of pure steel.
In order to acknowledge her remarkable contribution to society she was given the
prestigious Ahilyabai Holkar award by the Maharashtra government in 2002. Sapkal
also received the Ahmadiyya Peace Prize at the National Peace
Symposium held at London in 2014.
Recently, on International Women's Day 2018, President Ram Nath Kovind honoured women achievers with Nari Shakti Puraskar. Sindhutai was one
of the thirty nine women achievers who received this prestigious award.
The Marathi movie Mee Sindhutai Sapkal was based on her life. The film was selected
for the 54th London Film Festival. Film maker Ananth Mahadevan said, “She has changed my life. Today she is maai to me and
I am her bala. It is ironical that after making ten Hindi films, that one
Marathi film you make gets you four national awards. Somewhere our lives were
destined to meet”. 1
In 42 years she has raised about 1,200
children. Her inspiring journey shows that for a committed individual nothing
is impossible. Sindhutai is an epitome of Humanity. From being a deprived wife
to begging on the streets, she has now become a ‘Mother of orphans and
helpless’ children. Even at 70 she has the same drive to do something good for society.
To read all
articles by the Author
To
visit SINDHUTAI’s site
References
1 Free
Press Journal article