Early Days of Sindhutai

The Mother

“I am there for all those who have no one” – Sindhutai Sapkal

Sindhutai Sapkal never had an easy life. Mother to a thousand orphans, she was fondly called ‘Mai’.
Going back to her early days, she was born in a poor family in Wardha, Maharashtra. Being the unwanted child in the family and probably this step child treatment at her own home made her realise that every child needs to be treated with dignity. Her father, being a forward-thinking man, wanted to educate her., but her mother was not in favour of spending on her education.

Sindhutai was married off to a man who was twenty years elder to her at the tender age of twelve. She gave birth to her daughter in a chow-shed; because of society’s ill-treatment and questioning on her infidelity. In an interview with India Today Sindhutai mentioned how she cut her umbilical cord with a sharp-edged stone.

   

Life had to go on and a living had to be made and so she started begging to feed her baby. It was during her difficult times that she came in touch with orphan children and rest – the history was written in Indian social work for her selfless dedication and upbringing of orphans.