22:07
Faizan
When Meera walked, she dragged her crippled legs along with her body, braving her arms through all terrains. Born disabled, Meera lost her mother in her early childhood, leaving her under the care of her father. Meera's father was struggling to find ways to nurture a disabled daughter single handedly. No one was ready to marry a widower with a disabled daughter, only adding to his concerns and frustration. On someone's advice, Meera's father took her to a school for disabled in some village. Meera dragged herself through the entire way in a hope of a bright future just to be turned down for admission as the school admitted only boys. Exasperated by his exertion, her father lost his patience and slapped Meera right there in front of the school faculties, cursing her destiny and wishing she had died at birth. That slap on Meera's face hit someone harder than Meera. The principal of that school, Ms. Neeru Raval, who was present there, got extremely disturbed and moved by Meera's agony, and determined to elevate life of Meera and other such girls.
She spent many sleepless nights contemplating about the risks and effects of decision she was about to make. But in her mind, she was determined and knew she had found the mission of her life, thus the idea of "Manthan" was then born. 23 years from then, she is now parenting 360 girls, helping them find a meaning to their lives, and that she says is the meaning to her life.
The initial concept of Manthan was to set up a Rehab Centre for Polio Affected Girls, ONLY GIRLS. In 1991, Niru resigned from her job as the Principal of the school for disabled, took initial helps from the Santran Temple in Nadiad to set up the school in Kalol and financed her expedition from her personal savings and the gold she got from her mother. She started with teaching 21 girls under a tree. That is where she slept and resided till she could get finance for setting tents and then later, the cottages were established. Ms. Raval, a lady with a considerable sense of humor and spontaneity, laughed as she explained the initial troubles she faced on setting up the organization. In addition to the water, sanitation, roads, transportation and troubles from thieves, she said the major issues were poisonous snakes and spiders. They would leave the cottage and sleep outside if the snakes decided to rest in their cottages! Her core values of are reflected as she explains why she named the organization as "Manthan". Amidst the society where people believe no work can be accomplished without political influence, Ms. Raval wanted to explain it to the people that nothing comes above humanity and named the organization as Manthan, denoting her determination to change the social vision and values.
On visiting the campus, one can truly see where her values and beliefs have led to! Today, Manthan sits across a huge campus, where the girls study in the school, live in hostels built inside the campus and food for all is cooked by steam operated vessels and automatic chapati makers which has a capacity of making 750 chapatis an hour, so that all can sit and eat at the same time. The campus also has a music room, treatment rooms with physiotherapy facilities and workout equipments for the disabled girls. Manthan now takes care of girls from wide span, from physically handicapped, orphan, blind to the mentally challenged ones. Doctors are called weekly for the physical examination of each girl and there are 12 on-campus teachers along with additional support staff to organize and maintain the routine activities and treatment. All these treatments and facilities are provided to the girls at the cost of zilch. Ms. Raval believes that it is the destiny of the girls that has brought the organization to become such a big one. Manthan admits girls from 6 to 25 years of age and houses for an indefinite period to those who are not capable to live independently, like the mentally challenged girls. Manthan also helps girls get established in their lives, like getting them married, completing all the rituals and formalities that parents are supposed to do before and after marriage.
Having spent 35 years of her life helping less privileged children and living in campus since 23 years, concentrating her efforts towards betterment of the girls, we couldn't help asking if she ever felt like giving up and leaving the entire set up she had built. With her plain honesty and simplicity, she said that initially, because of extreme social and financial troubles, she, many times, had thought of giving up, but the smile of her children and thinking of their bright future, would boost her to face the troubles and continue! She says even right now, she becomes sad when children go to their home for vacation. Talking about her best moments so far, Ms. Raval brightens up in her effort to describe the happiness on the girl's face from Manthan, who was the first one to get operated for Polio. She beautifully describes how she told Ms. Raval to close her eyes and then putting her new clothes and 'jhanjhar', she then told her to open her eyes and then she spin in front of her. A girl who was always dragging herself on the floor was then standing and dancing, and could dream of wearing ornaments on her limbs! In her happiest moments, she also described about how she and the other girls sat for the first time in an aeroplane for participating in the 'World Gujarati Conference' at New Jersey, USA and the happiness on faces of the girls when they called their parents from the states!
She spent many sleepless nights contemplating about the risks and effects of decision she was about to make. But in her mind, she was determined and knew she had found the mission of her life, thus the idea of "Manthan" was then born. 23 years from then, she is now parenting 360 girls, helping them find a meaning to their lives, and that she says is the meaning to her life.
The initial concept of Manthan was to set up a Rehab Centre for Polio Affected Girls, ONLY GIRLS. In 1991, Niru resigned from her job as the Principal of the school for disabled, took initial helps from the Santran Temple in Nadiad to set up the school in Kalol and financed her expedition from her personal savings and the gold she got from her mother. She started with teaching 21 girls under a tree. That is where she slept and resided till she could get finance for setting tents and then later, the cottages were established. Ms. Raval, a lady with a considerable sense of humor and spontaneity, laughed as she explained the initial troubles she faced on setting up the organization. In addition to the water, sanitation, roads, transportation and troubles from thieves, she said the major issues were poisonous snakes and spiders. They would leave the cottage and sleep outside if the snakes decided to rest in their cottages! Her core values of are reflected as she explains why she named the organization as "Manthan". Amidst the society where people believe no work can be accomplished without political influence, Ms. Raval wanted to explain it to the people that nothing comes above humanity and named the organization as Manthan, denoting her determination to change the social vision and values.
On visiting the campus, one can truly see where her values and beliefs have led to! Today, Manthan sits across a huge campus, where the girls study in the school, live in hostels built inside the campus and food for all is cooked by steam operated vessels and automatic chapati makers which has a capacity of making 750 chapatis an hour, so that all can sit and eat at the same time. The campus also has a music room, treatment rooms with physiotherapy facilities and workout equipments for the disabled girls. Manthan now takes care of girls from wide span, from physically handicapped, orphan, blind to the mentally challenged ones. Doctors are called weekly for the physical examination of each girl and there are 12 on-campus teachers along with additional support staff to organize and maintain the routine activities and treatment. All these treatments and facilities are provided to the girls at the cost of zilch. Ms. Raval believes that it is the destiny of the girls that has brought the organization to become such a big one. Manthan admits girls from 6 to 25 years of age and houses for an indefinite period to those who are not capable to live independently, like the mentally challenged girls. Manthan also helps girls get established in their lives, like getting them married, completing all the rituals and formalities that parents are supposed to do before and after marriage.
Having spent 35 years of her life helping less privileged children and living in campus since 23 years, concentrating her efforts towards betterment of the girls, we couldn't help asking if she ever felt like giving up and leaving the entire set up she had built. With her plain honesty and simplicity, she said that initially, because of extreme social and financial troubles, she, many times, had thought of giving up, but the smile of her children and thinking of their bright future, would boost her to face the troubles and continue! She says even right now, she becomes sad when children go to their home for vacation. Talking about her best moments so far, Ms. Raval brightens up in her effort to describe the happiness on the girl's face from Manthan, who was the first one to get operated for Polio. She beautifully describes how she told Ms. Raval to close her eyes and then putting her new clothes and 'jhanjhar', she then told her to open her eyes and then she spin in front of her. A girl who was always dragging herself on the floor was then standing and dancing, and could dream of wearing ornaments on her limbs! In her happiest moments, she also described about how she and the other girls sat for the first time in an aeroplane for participating in the 'World Gujarati Conference' at New Jersey, USA and the happiness on faces of the girls when they called their parents from the states!
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