6. Begging for a Greater Cause

Begging For a Greater Cause The Mission of Sindhutai Sapkal Ramanand Vyasvahare Translation : Ketaki Rajwade beggar woman will be a two stones lying nearby. With one I of the house. They drove me away beggar woman, always. She kept down and with the other I cut from the village. I thought of killing Awill beg for the rest of her the umbilical cord. I embraced the the baby and myself. But my life. Fifty years ago, she begged on baby and carried it home. I spent the conscience told me to live for other the Manmad-Aurangabad-Nanded night in front of the house. Morning women like me. From that day railway track. Today she is the proud came and the people of the house onwards, I started begging on the recipient of more than 30 awards for noticed me. Having taken me for dead, Manmad–Aurangabad–Purna social work. And yet half a decade they were amazed to see me in front Nanded railway route. I begged for later, she continues to beg. seven years.” “I was married off by my The brave soul, father when I was only 11. My Sindhutai Sapkal, narrated husband was 30 at that time. this account of her life The thorny path of life started whilst accepting the late soon after I entered my in- Kamalatai Rausaheb laws' home. A year after my Jamkar Memorial Award at marriage, I conceived. Then Parbhani in Maharashtra. started the abuse at the hands Thousands of beggars of my in-laws. I didn’t have beg to satisfy their needs. any option but to tolerate the Yet they want to survive. physical and mental abuse to But Sindhutai did not beg which I was subjected. After just for herself. After all, I was a woman. When I leaving her child at the was nine months pregnant, Dagdusheth Halwai Trust my husband beat and at Pune, she begged on tortured me one night. I lost behalf of hundreds of consciousness. He assumed orphans, women and the that I had died. He dragged old who were in distress me to the nearest cowshed because they lacked and left me there in order to support. escape the charge of murder. In the last 50 years, she I lay there bleeding profusely. has supported 1,050 In that condition, I gave birth children and taught them to a baby girl. When I to live full lives. And yet, regained consciousness, a today, she still begs. At cow in that cowshed was the time she begged in standing over me forming a railway coaches, she saw canopy to protect me. It was the circumstances of licking my newborn. A human orphans, the old, etc. She had almost killed me, but an experienced their pain. She animal saved me. I picked up begged in order to build No. 126 27 Nadarmaay, a home for women in the Sindhutai hasn’t forgotten the celebrated her work. She was also village of Chikhaldara in the Amravati cow that took care of her child and given awards at Aurangabad and district of Maharashtra. Abandoned herself at the cowshed. As long as a Parbhani. Yet, Sindhutai begs even women were given shelter there. cow gives milk, it is taken care of. today. But the nature of begging has Orphaned girls found refuge at the When it stops giving milk, it is left on changed. Some years back, she Savitribai Phule home. The listener is the streets. The cow roams about in begged in the railway coaches. Now moved to tears on hearing Sindhutai search of food. When it is tired, it sits she begs at ceremonies where she is narrate the woes of the women housed down. Stray dogs and crows trouble felicitated. She has passed only the here. it. To protect the bearer of 33 crores fourth standard examination at She has also established the Mamta of gods, Sindhutai has started Gopika school. Yet, she has written an Bal Sadan at the village of Gau Rakshan Kendra at Sindhivihar. autobiography called Vanavasi. The Kumbharvalan in Pune district. Here she Here, cows left on the street are cared Karnataka government has accepted has housed several orphans through for. this book as part of their syllabus. the proceeds of begging “Somebody When Sindhutai realised that the Four editions of this autobiography had left a baby girl about 10-12 days number of orphans was increasing, have already been sold. Money old on the steps of Mamta Bal Sadan. I she established the Gangadharbaba generated from this book is being found her on the steps the next Chhatralaya at Guha in the used for her institutions. Now, she is morning. I named her Karuna Sathe. Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra. ready to write Vanavasi Two.The Someone had thrown a newborn into a “A judge from the Mumbai High people from the village from which 30 foot deep valley to kill it. An adivasi Court, Mr. B. G. Kolse-Patil, has Sindhutai was chased away by her who was searching for his lost goat donated 11 acres of fertile land, a well husband have also celebrated her heard the cries of the baby. Some wild and a house, the total worth of which work. Speaking about this, she says, animals were trying to kill it. He climbed is about Rs. 50 lakh. Balasaheb Vikhe- “ Night is terrifying, but without it, down the valley and rescued the child. Patil had wished to purchase the the day does not dawn. For me, the The animals injured him, too. He Kolse-Patil property at a very high night is over and now it is day. If my brought the child to me and told me all price. But Kolse-Patil refused to sell husband had not maltreated me, I about how he found it. I named the it. He donated it to us. He wished to wouldn’t have done all this. I have child Deepak Sapkal. I name all the girls name this place after the great and forgiven him. I am ready to accept as Sathe after my maiden surname and saintly social worker Gadgebaba. But him any time, but as a child or an older all the boys as Sapkal after my I insisted that the place be named person, not as a husband. Now, there husband’s surname. Tell me, am I after Mr. Kolse-Patil’s parents who is only a mother left in me…” wrong?” had worked hard on this land. He agreed. Here, orphaned children are This article by Ramanand Vyavahare Whilst begging, she noticed the was translated from Marathi by agonies of the aged. Thus she was brought up and educated.” Ketaki Rajwade, a student of Class 11 inspired to establish Maazi Aai, a home Sindhutai has emerged out of a in Mumbai. She undertook this translation for Manushi because she for the aged at a village known as life full of torment and given birth to a huge mountain of social work. It was moved and inspired by Sindhutai's Sindhuvihar in the taluka of Karanj in life. The original Marathi version the Wardha district of Maharashtra. has been 50 years now. People of appeared in the Maharashtra Times on She tells the story of an old couple she Manmad have taken note of and August 16, 2000 brought there: “I saw them travelling. They were telling each other: ‘Die before me. In this way your agonies will end Subscription Correspondence faster.’ I left the train and approached them. I came to know that their son was In all your correspondence with us, including your an advocate in the Supreme Court at subscription renewals, please write your full address Delhi. Their daughter in- law maltreated CLEARLY. When renewing subscriptions, it helps if you them. She used to quarrel with the include your subscription number. This number appears husband because she felt her in-laws on the top left hand corner of the envelope in which each were a burden. They did not want to be the cause of crisis in the son’s copy is mailed to you. This enables us to process your household. They quietly left the house. subscriptions promptly. I got them to Maazi Aai.” 28 MANUSHI.

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