Parent’s Day: Meet the heroes who dedicated themselves to the service of destitute children

National Parent’s Day is celebrated on the fourth Sunday in July every year to honour and appreciate their unconditional love and support for us.

However, not all parents are biologically related to their children, and some bonds are strengthened by love and compassion.

This year, we celebrate all those parents who are taking care of children who had nobody else to call their own with dignity, love, and respect. 

Here are the stories of five such heroes. 

Sindhutai Sapkal 

Sindhutai Sapkal — affectionately called “Mai” or “The Mother of Orphans” — is a social worker and activist working for the welfare of orphaned children.

Born into poverty, she had to quit her education as soon as she finished Class 4 and was forced to get married. In her new home, she fought against the exploitation of local women.

After giving birth to three sons, she was beaten up by her husband and left to her fate at nine months pregnant. She gave birth to a daughter and had to resort to begging for survival.

During this time, she came across many children who were abandoned by their parents and took them under her wings.

Sindhutai devoted her entire life to orphans and started an orphanage funded by private donations. Usually, orphanages only keep children until they turn 18, but Sindhutai takes care of them till they can stand on their own feet. 

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Kiran Modi

The founder and managing trustee of Udayan Care, Kiran Modi, is on a mission of ‘Making Young Lives Shine’.

Seen as a ‘mentor mother’ by many children, Kiran started Udayan Care to provide group housing to abandoned and at-risk children, striving to rehabilitate, educate, and empower them.

Kiran lost her 21-year-old son to a tragic accident. While going through his belongings she found out that he was supporting poor children in Africa through his allowance and by taking up odd jobs.

His empathy spoke volumes to her, and she knew that although she lost her son, there are many children out there who need a parent, someone to call their own. And she dedicated herself to the service of destitute children. 

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Girish Kulkarni

The founder of Snehalaya — an organisation working towards the welfare of children and women who face injustice and exploitation — Girish Kulkarni is a trained journalist and professor.

A gut-wrenching incident compelled him to form Snehalaya when he came across a brothel-keeper brutally torturing a girl of about three or four years old by putting chilli powder down her genitals.

This broke his heart, and he rescued the girl from this atrocity and decided to take the responsibility of caring for her.

What started with one girl Snehalaya now supports over 17,000 people annually. He and the volunteers at Snehalaya also work towards understanding and eliminating the root causes of the exploitation of children and women.

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Kailash Satyarthi

The recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, Kailash Satyarthi, has been peacefully campaigning against child labour and advocating for the universal right to education.

Born in Madhya Pradesh, he completed a degree in electrical engineering and went on to become a teacher. In 1980, he left his teaching job and found Bachpan Bachao Andolan.

He strongly believes that global prosperity can come only when the rights of children are respected and upheld.

Kailash and his team have liberated over 90,000 children in India from cruelty, ranging from child labour to trafficking.

He has also worked towards the formulation of international conventions on the rights of children. 

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Tulsi Parihar 

Born to an Army officer, Tulsi Parihar was married at the young age of 19. She lost her husband three years into the marriage and her in-laws refused to support her after that.

While her family was not in a stable financial condition at the time, she had to take care of herself and her one-year-old daughter single-handedly. She joined SOS Children Villages as a mother and is now the longest-serving SOS mother in the world.

She has raised 33 children under her care. Although it has been a challenging task, she has never looked back since she joined the organisation in 1984.

She has made it her mission to serve children who have been abandoned or have lost their parents. She gives them love, care and support — everything she wished for when she was going through the difficult phase.