SINDHUTAI SAPKAL : A LEGACY TO CHERISH

With a grand family of 382 sons-in-law and 49 daughters-in-law, she's the mother to over 1,500 orphaned children. Conferred with Padma Shri in 2021, she's been honoured with more than 700 awards for her work. Her relentless mission to work for the people and their livelihood is a worthy reminder that one can really be the good they want to see in the world. Today we honor and remember Sindhutai Sapkal aka "Mai" for her inspiring life journey.

"Andhera toh harr roj hota hai but humein ye dekhna hai ki subah bhi toh hoti hai." - Sindhutai 

The renowned Sindhutai, who had a story to utter, inspired many with her sacrifices, pain, and struggle. She never had an easy life. Going back to her early days, she was born in a poor family in Wardha, Maharashtra. Being the unwanted child in the family she experienced the worst as a child. This made her realize that every child needs to be treated with love, care, and dignity. Her father, being a forward-thinking man, wanted to educate her, but her mother was not in favor of spending on her education. But Tai always wanted to study so when her family didn’t provided her a slate, she used Bharadi tree leaves to practice writing.

Later in life, she was married off to a man who was twenty years elder to her at the tender age of twelve. Even after being crushed and chained by the shackles of child marriage, young Sindhutai never lost hope. She settled in the Navargaon forest in Wardha and strongly opposed the exploitation of village women by the Forest department. Little did she knew, that her fight would change her life for the worse. During her pregnancy, a nasty rumor of infidelity was circulated by an angry landlord. Her husband after believing this abandoned her. Beaten, she gave birth to her daughter in a cowshed. Unable to regain consciousness, Sindhutai went back to her maternal home for help, but there too she faced a harsh rejection. With no options left, she started begging in trains and on the streets. She continued to fight for herself and her daughter’s existence and made train stations, cowsheds, and cemeteries her home.

In an interview, Sindhutai revealed the shocking story about how she would spend her nights at the cemeteries and Shamashan Bhumi. She said, "I realized that people only visit Shamshan Bhumi when their relative or friends die. They only enter the area when someone passes away so I started living there like my own house. I also cooked rotis on the burning pyre to survive myself and my baby. I was scared but I had to do these things for my survival. I also started sleeping there at night to avoid being picked up by men."

Tussling hard between life and death, Tai took up every hope to keep on moving.

It was during these experiences of poverty, abjection and homelessness that Sindhutai came across dozens of helpless orphans and women who were blatantly ignored by society. She started adopting these orphans and worked and sometimes begged incessantly to feed them. To avoid partiality towards her biological daughter, Sindhutai sent her daughter to trust in Pune. After years of hard work, she raised her first Ashram at Chikaldara. She traveled across villages and cities to raise money for her Ashrams. Many a time she even had to fight for the next meal due to lack of funds. But Sindhutai never stopped. To date, she has adopted and nurtured over 1200 orphaned children. They fondly call her ‘Mai’. Many of her adopted children are now lawyers and doctors. Now her biological daughter and the adopted children are running orphanages of their own.

"I am there for all those who have no one” – Sindhutai

It was much later in her life that her husband came to her and apologised for his ill-treatment towards her. She had forgiven him and accepted him as her eldest child. Known particularly in raising orphan children, Sindhutai won several awards for her social work. The fact that Sindhutai was never accepted in her own family whether it was her parents or her husband, she always wanted to adopt orphaned children. Being an unwanted child, she valued each and every child that she adopted.

Today India is the second most populated country in the world and has a significant part of its population as children. But it is appalling to witness the fact that a chunk of these children is usually orphaned or abandoned and are forced to live in poverty and face continuous abjection from society. Needless to say, Sindhutai has been the angel of hope to them. She poured out her love and affection on these children and took them under her wings. But the ultimate fate of a human being spares no one. She breathed her last in Pune on 4th January 2021. 

Epitome of love and compassion, Sindhutai scripted her own story with incredible grit. Her legacy would  be cherished forever and ever!

-Anchal Pandey