Mother Of 1400 Children

Sindhutai Sapkal was born in 1948 to an impoverished family in Pimpri Meghe, a remote village in Maharashtra. Her father was a cowherd by profession. Though living in poverty, her father wanted Sapkal to get an education. But her mother was against this. So, Sapkal used to go to school under the pretext of cattle grazing. Due to sheer lack of finance, she did not have a slate to write on. In place of slate, Sapkal used the ‘leaf of Bharadi Tree.’

But, Sapkal could not study ahead of 4th class like many girls at that time, Sindhutai was married off at a tender age of 10 to Shrihari Sapkal, a cowherd from Navargaon, Maharashtra. Even after being crushed and chained by the shackles of child marriage, young Sindhutai never lost hope. Instead her passion to the help the helpless and wronged aggravated. Settling in the Navargaon forest in Wardha after marriage, she strongly opposed the exploitation of village women, who collected cow dung, by the Forest department and the Landlords in 1972. 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. This raised a rejection for her from the community. Even her husband abandoned her. Beaten, she gave birth to her daughter Mamta on 14th October 1973 in a cowshed. Sindhutai went back to her maternal home, but there too she faced an unapologetic rejection from her mother.

“I cut the umbilical cord with a sharp-edged stone lying nearby,” she recalls. The incident deeply affected her and she thought of committing suicide, but gave up that thought and started begging at railway platforms for food to look after her daughter. Feeling lost and betrayed, Sindhutai started singing and begging in trains and on the streets just to make ends meet. She continued to fight for herself and her daughter’s existence and made train stations, cowsheds and cemeteries her home. As she spent more time begging, she realized that there are many orphans and children abandoned by their parents. Having faced the difficulties herself, she could feel their pain and she decided to adopt them. She started begging more earnestly in order to feed the many children that she had adopted. Gradually she decided to adopt every child who came across as an orphan and, over a period of time, she emerged as the “mother of orphans”.

After years of effort and struggle, Sapkal’s work slowly caught public attention and people started recognizing her efforts. In the year 2016, the D.Y. Patil College of Technology and Research, Mumbai conferred upon her the degree of Doctorate in Literature. So far, she has been honoured with more than 750 awards for her relentless and selfless social work. On March 8, 2018, International Women’s Day, she was awarded the Nari Shakti Award 2017 by the President of India.

Sapkal spends all the money from the awards towards uplifting those in need. She not only helps poverty-stricken children, but also offers her care to abandoned women. She now has a huge family of 36 daughter-in-laws, 207 son-in-laws and over 1000 grand kids. Many of her children went on to become lawyers and doctors and others run their own orphanages to help the poor and assist her in her noble goals.

In this constant tussle to survive, she found herself in Chikaldara, situated in the Amravati district of Maharashtra. Here, due to a tiger preservation project, 84 tribal villages were evacuated. Amidst the confusion, a project officer impounded 132 cows of Adivasi villagers and one of the cows died. Sindhutai decided to fight for a proper rehabilitation of the helpless tribal villagers. Her efforts were acknowledged by the Minister of Forests and he made appropriate arrangements for alternative relocation.

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 the 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 a trust in Pune. After years of hard work, she raised her first Ashram at Chikaldara. She travelled 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. Till date, she has adopted and nurtured over 1200 orphaned children. They fondly call her ‘Maai’. Many of her adopted children are now lawyers and doctors. Now her biological daughter and the adopted children are running orphanages of their own.

Sindhutai Sapkal has received around 270 awards from various national and international organizations. A Marathi film “Mee Sindhutai Sapkal” was also released as her biopic in 2010. She has founded numerous organizations across Maharashtra which provide education and shelter to thousands of orphans. Even today, at the age of 67, Sindhutai Sapkal works relentlessly to shape the future of these orphans because she believes that a deprived child means a deprived nation.

Sindhutai Sapkal seems to be a source of Life and Hope, an epitome of Grace and Divine. Indeed she is an embodiment of Humanity. From begging to helping others, from being a dejected wife to providing for helpless, Sapkal has come a long way, defying all odds and difficulties. Still, at 69, she is more than ever fervent in her mission.