Her mother denied her education at a very young age. Getting married to a man twenty years elder to her, at the tender age of twelve, just added to the wounds.
But things took a major turn when she was ostracised from her community and was left to fend for her baby and herself. She ended up begging on the railway platform where she realised the fate of many orphaned children abandoned by their parents. This went on to change her destiny and gave her purpose to earn more to support her new found children. All her hard work led her to starting the NGO called Savitribai Phule Girls’ Hostel Ashram in Chikaldara, Amravati. It’s her gift of the gab and her determination that got her to her dream.
Fondly known as Mai, she has mothered over thousands of orphaned children which won her the Padma Shri in Social, Nari Shakti Puraskar from the President Of India, the Mother Teresa Awards for Social Justice and so many more.
She breathed her last in Pune at the age of 74. From being the unwanted and rejected child to mothering thousands of orphaned children, Sindhutai’s journey is exemplary. May her soul rest in peace.
