THE ORPHANS' MOTHER

Sindhutai Sapkal’s life began being an unwanted child. Her husband, who abused her, abandoned her when she was nine months pregnant and she had to give birth alone. The incident affected her deeply and she thought about committing suicide, but instead, she began to beg on railway platforms to feed her daughter. 

Over time, she realized that there were many orphans and abandoned children in the streets. Having had to endure many hardships herself, she decided to adopt them and started begging more intensively in order to feed them. That's how she came to be known as the “orphans’ mother”. “I was committed to caring for and raising them as my own children. I'm there for those who have no one”, he says fondly. At 68, Sindhutai has many stories behind a strong personality full of energy and passion.

To date, she has adopted and fed more than 1400 orphans, helping them to get an education and supporting them to get ahead in life. Sinduthai is affectionately known as “Mai” (mother). She does not give children up for adoption and treats them as if they were her own. Some of them are now lawyers, doctors and engineers. 

With love and compassion, Sindhutai has built a large family. “By the grace of God, I had good communication skills. I could go talk to people and influence them. Hunger made me talk, and this became my source of income. I give many speeches in various places, and this provides some money to care for my children.”

Sindhutai’s unusual life is an inspiration. Even after facing so many difficulties, she has remained strong and has found her way into everyone’s heart, proving that it is possible to turn lives around as well as the lives of thousands of people around them.

LET'S HELP TURN LIVES AROUND

SEWING TO PROSPER

The basic and advanced fashion design classes started in May with 33 women from the Community Project. Jan Shikshan Sansthan (an offshoot of the government’s Human Resource Development Department) is working together with Asha-Kiran by providing sewing machines and a professional teacher.

The main idea behind the training is to manufacture cloth pouches and thus create business opportunities for the women. As they undergo the training, they will become more skilled at cutting, stitching, making combinations, making the best use of the fabric, and creating quality pouches.

For marketing purposes we have a group of six volunteers from Symbiosis International University and Brihan Maharashtra College of Commerce (BMCC) who are helping us to set up the supply chain, all the way from finding a source of the raw material, to whom to contact once the product is ready. All the volunteers are very good at managing databases, preparing proposals, setting up meetings with buyers and suppliers, and promoting this business on social networking sites.

LET’S SUPPORT THEIR TRAINING AND FINANCIAL SELF-SUFFICIENCY

EDUCATING AND RE-EDUCATING

Child marriage is commonplace in India, where more than one third of all the child brides in the world live. According to UNICEF, nearly half of the girls are married by 18 years of age, and 18% are married by the time they are 15. For the most part, girls are married off without their consent Indian law has made child marriage illegal, but it is still widely practiced.

Action for the Rights of Children (ARC) and Asha-Kiran came together to organize a two-day workshop where the grass root level workforce of the organization worked with youngsters from our community. Various tasks were given to them to perform in groups as a way to raise awareness about the damage that marriage can cause before a person is physically, emotionally and psychologically mature.

The minors also received information on who to consult and go to regarding cases of child marriage. The participants were asked to spread the newly acquired information among their respective families and community.

EDUCATION IS KEY TO PROGRESS – HELP US TO INFORM

JUNE 12TH: MILLIONS OF CHILDREN STILL WORKING

Just as India has the highest number of children in the world, its number of working children is equally high - around 12.6 million, according to government figures. The Right to Education Act aims to ensure free and compulsory education to all children up to 14, yet children are found toiling as semi-slaves in every imaginable and unimaginable place.

Child labor robs children their childhood and their chance to grow in a healthy and wholesome atmosphere. Not only is their present in danger, but also their future and their offspring’s future, as the cycle of ignorance-poverty is perpetuated by their lack of education or training.

The fight against child labor needs to be long and sustained, and has to address all strata of society. Mindsets must be changed universally so that something commonplace can be seen as an aberrant practice by the same eyes that now consider it ‘normal’.

Let us, together, help to open these children’s and their parents’ eyes to other possibilities – to another way of living.

VIOLATED AND MURDERED

Around a thousand dalit women, belonging to the lowest rung in the caste system in India, are raped each year. Their status as 'untouchables' puts them at the base of the social pyramid, where their future is practically marked from birth - a bleak future indeed.

A police officer figures among those arrested in relation to the recent gang rape of two teenagers who were later hung from a tree. Despite tougher laws, rapes continue to occur. Unfortunately, implementation of the laws can be severely hampered by the caste mindset. The father of one of the girls told the local media that when he went to the authorities, they made fun of him for being a dalit.

The activists claim that rape and murder do not get wide media coverage when the victim is an 'untouchable'. In addition, "Violence, or its threat, makes girls drop out of school and women stop going to work. This vicious cycle keeps women and girls poor and vulnerable," according to the program director and Action Aid policy in India.

An important part of Asha-Kiran’s work is to educate and re-educate families on values such as gender equality. Without this education, dalits and other disadvantaged social groups will continue to be the target of harassment and violence, and their girls and women, the most vulnerable among the vulnerable. With your solidarity, we can continue to 'open their eyes' and provide the means for their hopes to have a visible effect in their lives.

JOIN US IN THIS PRESSING TASK

Sources: elmundo.es / elpais.com

MILLENIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS: A PENDING ISSUE

In September 2000, the UN set eight goals to eradicate or reduce the main social problems of the planet. The Millennium Development Goals were the first universal political program with the aim to improve overall living conditions by a specific date: 2015. The aim was to have the richer countries put forth more and better resources to end hunger, reduce poverty and gender inequality, ensure access to primary education for all children, curb disease and achieve sustainable environmental development.

Now, the UN faces the failure of the most ambitious project in its history and it is working to develop a political strategy to propose a time extension and setting new goals. “The tragedy is that the UN has no power to impose the common good to the true masters of the world, which are multinational corporations”, argues an adviser to the Human Rights Council. “The ones who make and enforce decisions are 500 private corporations that control more than half of the gross world product. The worst thing is that organizations within or associated with the United Nations act as mercenary entities for such multinational organizations, favoring the privatization of all public goods.”

The reports being drawn up by high UN officials will aim to create an atmosphere of ‘mobilizing optimism’ even though in 2015, half of the population on earth will suffer an acute shortage of drinking water and billions of people will have to make due with less than a dollar a day. Under such conditions, one would expect the UN to duly stimulate the exercise of responsibility on the part of the countries that have breached their social commitments.

GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT IS ALSO UP TO US

Source: elmundo.es

INDIA: WOMEN VOTERS

During the past 50 years, female voter turnout in India has been increasing while that of male voters has remained unchanged - a trend that, according to observers, cannot be ignored now that India is holding its 16th general election.

“Women are getting a clear sense that voting is something they have a say in”, says an anthropologist from the School London of Economics. It is anticipated that there will continue to be a high female participation, and that this could have a big impact on the outcome of the nine-phase election that began on April 7 and ends on May 12, 2014.

A study of the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad revealed that a massive female vote can make political parties shudder. By analyzing two local elections held in 2005 in the eastern state of Bihar, the study found that an increase in female turnout negatively affected the probability of re-election of a political party, while a high share of male voters increased the chances that a party would stay in power.

 “Appeals to women voters have always been more tokenist in nature," says a professor at the University of Pune's department of politics and public administration. “It's likely to stay that way for some time.” It may be so, but with women voting in increasing numbers, many think Indian politicians will have to start listening.

Source: bbc.com