SISTER SUDHA VARGHESE - A SAVIOUR OF THE DALIT MUSAHAR (RAT-EATER) WOMEN
The Musahar are those who survive on eating rats - that is how they got the name for their community. They are Dalits, mostly found in pockets of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. The name Sudha means nectar in Sanskrit. It connotes the nectar of love, pity and compassion. Padmashree Sudha Varghese, a feisty sixty-nine years old social warrior, hailing from an affluent family in Kottayam, Kerala, is popularly known as Sister Sudha or Didi among the Dalits of Musahar community. She is worshipped as a saviour of countless women suppressed by years of neglect, domestic violence and abysmal poverty.
"All their lives they are told, 'You are the last. You are the least. You do not deserve to have'. They learn very fast to keep quiet, don't expect changes and don't ask for more". To such disempowered women Sister Sudha has brought empowerment.
At the age of sixteen Sister Sudha had moved to Bihar from Kerala to work for the poor with the Sisters at the Notre Dame Academy. She learned English and Hindi while training there and worked as a teacher at the Convent. In 1986 she moved into a mud house among the Musahar community to educate them. In due course she built schools and a home. In 1989 she obtained a Law Degree from a school in Bangalore to fight cases for women who have faced abuse, particularly, rape, sexual harassment and violence at home and outside.
In her home she welcomed a group of Dalit girls from the Musahar community and taught them reading, writing, sewing and embroidery. This was the first step towards building two groups of exemplary institutions namely Nari Gunjan Schools and Prerna Schools. Two years after her foray into teaching the Dalit girls she opened five centres to teach girls vocational tarring in nutrition, sanitation, and money management. These were the initial batch of Nari Gunjan schools famous for their invaluable service to the Dalit community. These centres also taught nursing and preliminary medical assistance and other economic skills. Her initial funding was from her parents, and siblings with marginal contribution from the community. However, the UNICEF gave a grant subsequently which enabled her to expand to fifty centres.
She stayed with the Musahar community for twenty-one years. In between she had to return briefly to the Convent after she was threatened by the perpetrators of an attack against the Musahar boys because the victims had dared to file a police report against them. Their anger against her was because she had taught the Dalits about their rights.
In 2005 she moved to Patna, where she established a residential school named Prerna (Inspiration). It was in a public building described as "half public latrine and half buffalo shed" in Lal Kothi in the outskirts of Danapur. The Government of Bihar partly funded the restoration of the building and some voluntary donations also helped. The school was opened in 2006. It is an all-girls school with the objective of weaning away girls from farm labour and giving them education and job-skills. Sister Sudha instilled in them a deep self-respect, making them aware of their Fundamental Rights guaranteed under the Indian Constitution.
In 2008 the Prerna Residential School for Mahadalit Girls in Patna had an enrolment of 125 girls. The inmates of the School were given food free of cost and the school used to impart the basic skills. For curriculum based formal education they were sent to a nearby private school for which the tuition fee was paid by Prerna. Sister Sudha also hired a few unemployed university graduates to teach the girls within the premises of the residential school.
In 2011 another Prerna school was opened at Gaya at the behest of the Chief Minister of Bihar, Shri Nitish Kumar. The state government allotted a piece of land and allocated some resources for building the school. It is now partially funded by the Mahadalit Mission under the Government of Bihar.
The Prerna schools are non-denominational and impart integrated education which includes calisthenics and art programmes. However despite the best efforts of the teachers sometimes girls are called away by the parents to marry them off at much below the prescribed legal age of marriage. The waiting list for enrolment being long, the Prerna school fills up the vacancies immediately.
One of the main objectives of the Nari Gunjan and Prerna schools is to teach self-defence to the girls. In many of the schools Karate is taught to the girls to protect themselves from harassment and domestic violence. Sister Sudha believes Karate would give them self-confidence and self-protection. The Karate students of Prerna Chhatravas proved their mettle in a national level completion in Gujarat in 2011 by winning five gold, five silver and fourteen bronze medals. In the process some of them became eligible to participate in the Asian Junior Karate Championship in Japan in 2011. They brought laurels to the country by winning seven trophies at the Championship.
In 2006 Sister Sudha was awarded the prestigious national civilian honour of Padma Shri in recognition of her services as Chief Executive Officer of Nari Gunjan a not-for-profit organisation that provides education, literacy, vocational training, healthcare, advocacy and life skills to Dalit girls and women in Bihar.
The accompanying video clip show Sister Sudha at her best proclaiming loud and clear - I don't show fear! There are a few more video clips under the "Video of the Day" section. PositiveVibes.Today hopes that the readers share our pride in saluting this brave heart who sacrificed the affluence of a prosperous Kottayam family to dedicate her life to the services of the Musahar and other Dalit communities in Bihar and filled her life with the Blessings of the Lord.
(Material for this article has been taken from Wikipedia.)
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