Sindhutai Sapkal Biography 
Sindhutai Sapkal is a social worker and social activist, and a recipient of the prestigious Nari Shakti Puraskar, India's national honours conferred on individual women for their exceptional achievement. Also known as "Mother of Orphans", she has done excellent contributions in raising orphaned children in India. DY Patil Institute of Technology and Research conferred her with an honorary Doctorate in 2016.
Sindhutai Sapkal was born on 14 November 1948 into a very poor family in a small village of Maharashtra. She hails from Pimpri Meghe village in Wardha district. As she was born as a girl child, she was referred to as Chindhi, which literally translates as "torn piece of cloth". But her father was very fond of her, who educated her too. He used to send her to school under the pretext of cattle grazing. The family had cowherd as profession traditionally. She used the leaves of Bharadi Tree as slate, as her family couldn’t afford a slate. She managed to study till class 4, but was forced to quit due to poverty and poor financial status of her family.
At the age of 10, she was married to a 30-year old Shrihari Sapkal, a cowherd. Before she reached 20, she gave birth to three sons. When a local person took dried cow dung from villagers without giving money, she came forward with agitation and her struggles caught the eye of district collector. He passed an order supporting Sapkal. It was her first handy experience as a social worker. But sadly, the local person succeeded in brainwashing her husband who sent her away from home, when she was 9 months pregnant. She gave birth to a baby girl this time, outside the home in a cow shed and walked long distance to reach her mother's home.
When her mother refused to shelter her, she begged in platforms for food. It was that point of time she realized that there are so many children in this society who are helpless, orphans and without any shelter, and she decided to do something for them. Devoted her entire life to orphans, she has nurtured over 1,050 orphaned children.
Published: September 16, 2018
Updated: September 16, 2018
