The journey of womanhood is no less than a roller coaster
ride. Several cultures have emphasized on
respecting and worshipping womanhood. Perhaps that’s the reason we humans have
been referring to earth as Mother Earth, to nature as Mother Nature and to a country
as Motherland since ages together. Mythological stories often consider women as
an epitome of strength and power. Times changed and so did the position of
women in the society. Women were now subjected to oppression, violence, inequality
and sexual assault. Only a few who were the daughters / mothers / wives of the
kings were considered. Constant suppression
and dominance finally reached a level of saturation and women decided to rise
from oblivion and make history. This was an emergence of a feminist era that
paved way for all women to exhibit their strength and voice their choice.
Indira Gandhi, Benazir
Bhutto, Margaret Thatcher, Queen Victoria, Mother Teresa, Princess Diana, Helen
Keller, Wangari Maathai, Malala Yousafzai , Hilary Clinton and the list of
inspiration seems endless. But the name that inspires me is Sindhutai Sapkal a
social worker from India. This name may not be known to most of us and may not
seem to be a big name but the persona is as big as Mother Earth. Sindhutai has
nurtured more than 1050 orphan children by adopting them as her own. She even
donated her biological child to a trust to eliminate the feeling of bias
towards her daughter and the adopted ones. Here’s her story: Sindhutai was
married at the age of 10. She had 3 sons by the age of 20.She was abandoned by
her husband when she was 9 months pregnant with his 4th child. She didn’t
lose hope and delivered her baby girl all by herself in a cowshed. She started begging to feed her child and then
realised that there are scores of children abandoned by parents and started
adopting them and begged a lot to feed all of them. This is how she became a
mother to all the orphan children who came across her. Most of the children she
adopted are now lawyers, doctors and well educated people.
She is 66 years old now and her husband apologised to her. She
even accepted her husband as her child and states that she is only a mother
now. Her duty is to nurture all the
children who need her help. She is fondly referred as Mai (mother) by all. She
has a powerful persona and aura around her that inspires all women to be independent
without any grudge against anyone who ill-treated her. She runs scores of
orphanages now and has become an epitome of selfless service and a true
inspiration to women.
The purpose of sharing this story is to tell women that they
are not weak; they have the ability to conquer the world.
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