Avani rescues child labourers, and educates and empowers women who are widowed, divorced or abandoned

Anuradha Bhosale is not your regular social worker. She is someone who understands what it is like for little hands to work, or for women to be abandoned by their families, having walked these difficult paths herself.

Today, she is the vice-president of Avani, a non-governmental organisation in Kolhapur that helps rescue child labourers and works with underprivileged, abandoned women. “I always desired to work for child labour as I underwent a great deal of hardship and pain and could easily relate to their suffering,” she says.

Her story

The eleventh of 12 children, Ms. Bhosale had to work as a domestic help in Shrirampur, Ahmedabad, where she was born, as the family faced a financial crunch. Her father was a pre-primary teacher and earned a salary of ₹150. Ms. Bhosale earned ₹10 as domestic help. However, she nurtured a deep desire to pursue education, which she felt, was the only way to improve one’s position in life.

“I was fortunate that my employers allowed me to go to school,” says Ms. Bhosale. On completing Class V, she had to be shifted to a missionary-run girl’s hostel at Harigaon, Ahmednagar, as the family moved back to their home town at Bhokar, Ahmednagar. However, here again, she had to face humiliation as she couldn’t afford to pay the monthly fee of ₹25. “My mother did various jobs and worked very hard as she wanted me to pursue my dreams. However, despite working late into the night, she could never pay my monthly fees,” she recalls. Gradually, it dawned upon her teachers that she was a committed student and her fee was waived. “Whatever I could give was accepted by the institution.”

Ms. Bhosale wanted to do a lot more in life. She completed her graduation from Nirmala Niketan College of Social Work, Mumbai, in 1991. A priest with whom she worked at the age of 16 while doing odd jobs at a church bought her bus tickets. She stayed at the girl’s hostel and the same priest paid her tuition fee for two months. However, later she received financial support from the college. “Some of the teachers too helped me financially for the study tour,” recalls Ms. Bhosale. On completing the fifth year of the course, she started working with migrant children who crushed rocks used in paving roads in Kolhapur. She introduced these families to the principles of micro-finance and assisted in setting up self-help groups for women.

In 1995, she fell in love and got married, but domestic violence plagued the marriage from the start. Neither her husband nor her in-laws supported her social activities, but she carried on. In 1996, she joined the Verala Development Society (VDS), whose mission was to provide homes to homeless, divorced and widowed women in Sangli and Kolhapur districts. The next year she joined Avani, a VDS project to conduct surveys of migrant children in Kolhapur.

“This was what I had been craving for, and it was perhaps the most memorable moment of my life,” she says. However, while she found solace in work, her marriage was steadily deteriorating, and she had to leave home with a six-year-old daughter and a one-year-old son, with just the clothes they were wearing. “I did not have family or close friends to rely on. I now realised the plight of women and their children who were so often kicked out of home. I no longer sympathised with them; I understood the true meaning of empathy.”

At first, a friend offered her a place to stay. Other friends helped her financially for the next few months. Fortunately, help came from unexpected quarters as well: Arun Chavan, Chairman of Avani, Comrade Govind Pansare, former Communist leader of Kolhapur who fought legal battles for the underprivileged and Dr. Sunil Kumar Lawate, social worker in Kolhapur. Gradually, she began to make progress in her chosen field, attracting followers in the process too.

U.S.-based Dr. Arun Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, has been one of the biggest supporters of Avani. “He visits Avani every year along with the people from different parts of the world just to acquaint them with our work. He appreciates our work and motivates our volunteers,” she says.

“I was introduced to Avani through Dr. Gandhi,” says Scott Kafora, an architect from the U.S., and an Avani volunteer for the past six years. Mr. Scott has travelled to almost 30 countries working for the betterment of children. He is committed to improving the economic, social, emotional, and educational needs of underprivileged children around the world. Certified to teach English as a second language, he shares his knowledge of maths, science, reading, and computers free of charge. “I was greatly impressed to see Anuradha’s passion and how she tirelessly works to unite child labourers with their families. She works at the grass-root level and this is very impressive,” says Mr. Scott, who is now working towards the construction of a children’s home at Kolhapur.

What Avani does

The main aim of Avani is to educate, empower and unite women who are widowed, divorced or abandoned. Since August 2011, as many as 53,216 women received government entitlements in the form of cash and their children no longer needed to work as child labourers.

Since 1995, Avani has rescued 9,200 children in Kolhapur district, and they have been enrolled in the schools nearby. Avani also rescues migrant children and provides them with safe housing at Kolhapur. “With the help of the government, we implement housing schemes for their families,” says Ms. Bhosale. Avani operates 21 schools in the brickyard labour camps, where over 1,100 migrant children get an education.

Avani has also rescued children from sugarcane fields, construction sites, domestic work, street begging, retail shops, hotels, lodges and even from exploitation from their own families. In 2005, Avani started a daycare centre for migrant children, providing them with nutrition, clothes and safe housing, besides education. Avani also operates 10 day care centres for the children of waste pickers in Kolhapur’s slums.

Avani organises local community and grassroots fundraising campaigns throughout the year. They also try to raise funds by selling handmade Diwali greeting cards and lanterns and Raksha Bandhan bracelets. All the proceeds go back into the programme.

Ms. Bhosale says, “Long-term change can only be accomplished by encouraging people to educate and do things for themselves. Avani works to educate and sensitise government departments on the implementation of the laws and schemes already in place to help those in need.

“My greatest satisfaction is how Avani has been able to educate the brickyard owners that it is against the law to employ child laborers under the age of 14 and that these children have the legal right to attend government schools. Because of Avani’s work in the community, there is now tremendous awareness of the rights of children and the Child Labour Act, which is very heartening,”