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Ruta Satam
She is a symbol of indomitable courage and power and the most beautiful creation of human kind whose mere absence is the loss of fragrance of life, she is the one who bears, rears and nurtures the life of all.
Today, the day of March 8th we celebrate womanhood to mark the International Women’s Day also known as International Working Women’s Day across the world in order to focus the achievements and contributions of the women in the society.
This is not a new phenomenon. Since the 1900s we have been celebrating womanhood in order to bring about a positive change towards gender equality and demanding equal rights for woman. There are several inspiring stories about women in India who have transformed their lives from just being Home makers to Change makers.
Today, we take you through some of these inspiring stories of women who have made an immense contribution towards helping other people in the society.
Pratima Devi: For most she might come across as a mere rag picker but, Pratima Devi is more than just a rag picker. She is a foster mother to 300 stray dogs. She does not care even if she gets a meal to eat but, she makes sure that these dogs do not hungry. You seldom find such individuals who are ready to forgo their own meal for a dog. She has been applauded for her great work and was awarded the Godfrey Philips Bravery Award for Social Bravery.
Priti Patkar: One always looks down upon sex workers as if they are some kind of a disease. However, Priti Patkar thought differently. She considered them one amongst us and decided to help them. She started an NGO-Prerna that has been doing pioneering work in the red light area of Mumbai. Looking at the plight of the kids of these sex workers she started the world’s first-night care center for children of these women.
Kalavati Devi: Then you have Kalavati Devi, a local resident of Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh who thought about Swach Bharat and stop of open defecation in villages way before the PM Narendra Modi started the’ Swach Bharat’ movement. This 50-year-old woman helped in building toilets across all slums and lower income neighbourhoods in her city. She went from house-to-house speaking to families and conducted joint meetings with the community to convince them to back her plan. The result of her efforts has paid in the form of funds pouring and getting support from the municipal corporation to build 50 seat toilets for approximately 700 families across the slums of Kanpur.
Chetna Gala: When we talk about women empowerment we only look at working women in corporate and the urban cities. Empowering women to participate fully in economic life across all sectors is essential to build stronger economies, achieve internationally agreed goals for development and sustainability, and improve the quality of life for women, men, families and communities. Let me take you through the women entrepreneurs of Mahaswad, Satara. They are part of Mann Deshi Udyogini, a ‘B-school’ for rural women. Mann Deshi Udyogini is not your average B-school and its students are most unlike typical management students. They are goatherds, vegetable vendors, roadside tea sellers, daily-wage labourers and homemakers, among other things. The classrooms are also unusual. The goat herding course, for instance, is taught in the fields. Mann Deshi Udyogini was founded by social activist Chetna Gala Sinha in 2006 with the support of HSBC Bank. The business school is run by Chetna’s Mann Deshi foundation. She works for social change in some of the poorest and most drought-stricken areas of rural India.
Andrea Thumshirn: Finally, social work in India is not the prerogative of the Indian’s alone. We also have several foreign nationals who have visited the country once and decided to stay back and help the under privileged in their own little way. Andrea Thumshirn, a German premier league hockey player is one such foreign national who came to India as a tour operator. But, things changed for her when she visited a remote village in Rajasthan and decided to stay there and teach hockey to rural kids. She brings the same passion and love for the game to India and trains kids to play hockey in Garh Himmat Singh village in Rajasthan through her NGO called Hockey Village India
Good in work and all her deeds,
She does everything without any greed.
Her aims for life are very high,
She always has a vision in her sparkling eye.
She always believes in hard work and perseverance,
Her heart is filled with endurance.
She loves to help;
She loves to share,
A lot of pain she has to bare.
she has an ability to choose good,
so lets all of us Celebrate Womanhood!
Amelia Cruise
Inspiring read. All these women belonging to different sections of society making a difference in their own style. *Applaud* 😃