A MOTHER WHO BEGS TO FEED HER THOUSAND ORPHANS - SINDHUTAI SAPKAL
Of the many illustrious women who have adorned the glorious social fabric of our country, Sindhutai Sapkal from Pune district in Maharashtra is outstanding. She is popularly known as the 'Mother of Orphans' who has taken upon herself the onerous responsibility of adopting and raising more than 1400 orphans during her lifetime. It is difficult to believe that this unwanted child who was derisively called a 'chindhi' (Marathi for 'a torn piece of cloth') in her early childhood, has been conferred with more than 250 awards including the Narii Shakti Award 2017, Social Worker of the Year Award for 2016 from the Wockhardt Foundation and the Mother Teresa Award for Social Justice in 2013.
Sindhutai Sapkal was born into an abysmally poor family - her father was a cowherd - and was given away in marriage at the age of ten to another cowherd twenty years senior to her in age. When she was in the ninth month of her pregnancy and was about to give birth to her fourth child her husband threw her out of their house. Her fault? She had protested against the action of the village strongman who was exploiting the poor by taking away cow dung from their sheds and selling it in collusion with forest officials without paying anything to the cattle owners. Thrown out of home, Sindhutai gave birth to a baby girl on 14 October 1973 in the cowshed of her husband and walked several kilometres to her mother to seek shelter. The mother turned her away.
Sindhutai almost decided to commit suicide, but came out of the depression to take care of her daughter. She started begging in the railway platforms for survival. She came across many other children who were either orphaned or abandoned by their parents. She adopted all of them and begged more vigorously to feed them and raise them. She later donated her biological child to the Trust of Shrimant Dagdu Seth Halwai at Pune with the express purpose of eliminating any feeling of partiality between her daughter and the adopted children.
Thanks to her the orphans got a shelter, a mother to feed them and to encourage them to go to school. Many of the children she adopted are well-educated lawyers and doctors. Some of them - her biological daughter is one of them- run their own independent orphanages inspired by Sindhutai. One of her children is doing a Ph.D. Research on her. A film has been made on her in Marathi in 2010 named 'Me Sindhutai Sapkal'. It was selected for its world class premiere at the 54th London Film Festival.
At the age of 80 her husband came back to her and begged her forgiveness. She accepted him as her child stating that her entire existence now was only as a mother. At her Ashram she affectionately introduces him to the visitors as her eldest child. When people meet her they are amazed by her simplicity and largeheartedness. She impresses every one by her unlimited energy and boundless love for everyone. She has forgiven everyone, doesn't blame anyone for her past sufferings and harbours no negative emotion. She comes across as a powerful inspiration although greatness and nobility sit very lightly on her motherly shoulders. Even now she begs for funds for the orphans who look upon her as their mother.
The accompanying documentary film made by Shri Ulhasnagar Kotkar and available in YouTube, partly in Marathi and partly in English, comes across as a glorious testimony to the undying sprit of a brave mother who fought for the poor, the Adivasi, the orphaned and the homeless. It touches the heart to see so many of her adopted sons and daughters proudly proclaim Sindhutai Sapkal as their last name.
PositiveVibes.Today salutes this great soul and wishes there are many more mothers like her to lift the fallen children with their noble hands and make them live a life of dignity.
Credits : WikiPedia - (Materials for this article have been taken from Wikipedia).
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