Sindhutai sapkal biography sample

Women’s Day » Biographies of inspiring women » Sindhutai Sapkal

“A woman with a voice is by definition a strong woman. But the search to find that voice can be remarkably difficult.” – Melinda Gates, Philanthropist

Life has never been a duck soup for women folks. Though, rich or poor, they might have faced the wrath of autocratic society at some point in time. The loopholes in the society in terms of the social hypocrisy are just outcomes of the mindsets of some people who are making the lives of women miserable in every walk of life. But, the question is - Who is going to bring them out of their current gross situations? Every person is his or her own savior; it is necessary to stand up again on your feet to fight against the atrocities inflicted on you and to save others facing the similar brunt of destiny just like Sindhutai from Maharashtra.

Sindhutai Sapkal: A Woman of True Zeal

A 70-years old Sindhutai Sapkal, about half a century ago, was just another woman from the crowd. But, today she has attained a milestone of being a “Mother of Orphans” to 1,400 children still striving hard to provide them a better standard of living and a good disciplined life. She is certainly a God’s gift to the orphaned children who had no one to go in times of distress and hunger. Though, an unfortunate child, Sindhutai didn’t let her burdened by the brunt of harsh destiny, but rose again with great strength and courage to fight for children like her in the society. Her life story gives us jitters shaking our very souls, but, at the end, is a true inspiration for people who have accepted their destinies as the final call of God.

Working as a well-known and active social worker, Sindhutai has actively dedicated her entire life to the orphaned children adopted by her. Taking real life examples from her life story, her main aim is to save other children from facing the identical fa

The life of SindhutaiSapkal exemplifies the dictum that sometimes facts are stranger than fiction. Film-maker Anant Mahadevan found this dictum true when he ventured to make a film, Mee Sindhutai Sapkal on Sindhu Tai. He found her life so full of improbable incidents that he had to eschew some seemingly melodramatic incidents from her life to make the film look like a documentary of a real-life person. Just imagine a young woman of twenty, heavy in her womb, thrashed and thrown out of home by her husband in the middle of the night, giving birth to her baby in a cowshed, severing the umbilical cord herself by striking it repeatedly with a sharp-edged stone and walking away with the infant in her arms to spend the night under the starry sky. She spent her night in a crematorium to protect herself from drunkards and sexual predators. When she felt the pangs of hunger, she picked up the flour kept as offering near the funeral pyre and baked her bread on the still burning pyre. Homeless and with a child to feed, she took to singing and begging in trains. Often, she contemplated suicide but she continued her struggle for survival. One night she alighted from a train extremely tired, and sat down in a corner when she heard an old beggar, sick and hungry, on the verge of dying, asking for water. Sindhutaifed him with a roti and gave him water, which saved his life. This gave her the inspiration that she could save the lives of people and be of help to the helpless and destitute. This experience changed her life and she devoted herself to the care of the helpless, destitute and orphans. The altruism in her personality became the source of strength and made her the person that we know today as SindhutaiSapkal.

An Awe-Inspiring Story of a Destitute becoming Mother of over 2100+ Orphans and an Inspiration for Mil

A mother can never be defeated. A woman can never be defeated. But she needs to keep her heart strong and learn to forgive.

– Sindhutai Sapkal

Sindhutai Sapkal or ‘Mai’, is a social worker in Maharasthra, India. She is a social activist who works fervently towards the welfare of orphaned children in India. Having built a grand family over the decades, she now has one thousand grandchildren who are offsprings of the children she had previously adopted! Most of her ‘children’ are doing very well in life- some are lawyers, some are doctors and so on. In fact, one of her children is pursuing a PhD on Sindhutai’s life. Some of them are even running their own independent orphanages, and proliferating her good deed and spirit. This holds true even for her biological daughter!

Born on 14 November 1948 (Children’s day!), Sindhutai belongs to Pimpri Meghe village in Wardha district, Maharasthra. Her father was a cowherd by profession. The family had meager means, and Sindhutai was an unwanted child. She was often referred to as ‘Chindi’, which is a Marathi word that stands for a torn piece of cloth. Her father seemed to be her only source of hope, for he wanted to provide her with an education much against the wishes of his wife. Sindhutai would go to school on the pretext of cattle grazing and use leaves instead of slates to write on, owing to the paucity of finances.

Her family issues eventually caught on and she was forced to get married at the tender age of nine. She completed her formal education until Grade 4, and then had to quit. Her journey though, had not even begun yet.

Sindhutai’s husband was 21 years older than her, and he too was a cowherd from a neighbouring village. She gave birth to three sons before she turned twenty years of age. In a village- level feud, Sindhutai spoke up against a local strongman who was conning the villagers. When her agitation bore fruit, the strongman was humiliated and disgruntled against the poor woman. He

Indian social worker and activist (1948–2022)

Sindhu Shrihari Sapkal (14 November 1948 – 4 January 2022) (pronunciation), affectionately called Sindhutai, was an Indian social worker and social activist known particularly for her work in raising orphaned children in India. She was awarded the Padma Shri in 2021 and many other awards in the Social Work category.

Early life

Sapkal was born on 14 November 1948, in Pimpri Meghe in Wardha district in the then Central Provinces and Berar of Dominion of India to Abhimanyu Sathe, a cowherder. Being an unwanted child, she was referred to as Chindhi (Marathi for "piece of rag"). Abject poverty, family responsibilities and childhood marriage to an older man forced her to quit formal education after she successfully passed the fourth standard. Sapkal was married off at age 12 to Shrihari Sapkal, who was 20 years older than her, and moved to Nawargaon, Seloo in Wardha. The marriage did not last long and at the age of 20, she was violently forced out of her home by her husband, leaving her on her own to care for a daughter.

Early work with Adivasis

Sindhutai Sapkal later found herself in Chikhaldara, where she started begging for food. In the process, she realised that there were many children abandoned by their parents and she adopted them as her own. She had to beg even harder to feed ever the larger family. She decided to become a mother to everyone who came across to her as an orphan. She later gave away her own daughter to the Shrimant Dagdu Sheth Halwai trust of Pune, to eliminate the feeling of partiality between her own child and the adopted children.

Details of Sapkal's struggle were provided in the weekly Optimist Citizen on 18 May 2016:

In this constant tussle to survive, she found herself in Chikaldara, situated in the Amravati district of Maharashtra. Her