Messiah of orphans, orphans over 1500 in one go

In the death of Sindhutai Sapkal, popularly known as Mai, over 1500 men, women and children were orphaned last night.

Mai was the foster mother to over 1500 orphans over the last 54 years, though to them she was more than a real mother.

From her birth, her story was like that of many girls in the country. She was born to an extremely poor family and being a girl child, was unwanted. After being treated badly for some years, she was married off when she was just 12-years-old, to a man 20 years elder to her. She was born in Wardha district of Maharashtra and moved to Selu in the same district.

The marriage was a disaster, as she was badly treated by her husband too; often being beaten up. She was thrown out of her house by her husband, eight years after her marriage. With no money and no source of income, she was forced to beg. But that money was not enough to feed herself and her little daughter. As a young woman, she was also worried out about her safety, as she did not have a house to stay. Sindhutai then felt that the safest place for her was the crematorium and dared to sleep in the crematorium in the night. She also confessed in her interviews later that she often had the food that was kept near the burning pyre, by devout Hindus.

While she begged, she was shocked to see abandoned children begging on the streets. She then decided to work for the betterment of such children. She was worried that while taking care of orphans, she could be biased towards her own child, so she gave her biological child to a trust to take care of her.

After she was thrown out of here house, she moved to Chikaldhara in Amravati, in Maharashtra.  When she noticed that some villagers were being ousted from their village for a public project, she fought for the proper rehabilitation and successful in her effort.

But the thought of the orphan children kept haunting her and soon she started taking care of them and also established homes for such children. Over the years, more than 1500 orphans got a home due to Shindhutai, who by now was Mai to these children. Some of those, who were adopted by her, have moved to various places, including some going abroad.

It is quiet a coincidence that a woman who took care of so many children, was born on November 14, 1947, a day now being celebrated as Children’s Day in India, being the birth anniversary of first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

Though Mai did not the opportunity to be educated, she was full of wisdom. When she spoke, she could put many qualified people to shame with her knowledge, wisdom and her philosophy of life. She had command over Marathi, Hindi and Urdu and was good at quickly composing poems, while speaking about issues.

She was conferred with several awards for her yeoman services. Film maker Anant Mahadevan had made a film on her named, Mee Sindhutai Sapkal.