How Sudha Verghese Injected Dreams In A Rat-eating Community And Changed Their Life?

If you want to help the needy people, then inspiration can come out at any age. When you gird up your loins for this task, in starting you may face hardships but gradually all the hurdles erode. Here is the example of Kerala's Sudha Varghese who moved to Bihar at the young age of 15 with an aim to improve the life of people belonging to the week economical section of Bihar.

In order to ensure the well-being of the needy people, Sudha devoted her whole life. She has worked for the betterment of the Moosahaars, a Dalit community that is known to be so poor that they often catch and feed on rats for survival. She has donated her valuable span of 30 years of her life in serving Moosahaars. For this great work, she was awarded Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award of India.

The Decision That Changed Her Life

In 1995, Sudha came to know about the Bihar-based Moosahaar caste and their sub-human living conditions which were the result of poverty. This information-pushed her into making a life-changing decision of leaving her home state Kerala at the little age of 15 years. She set out for Bihar with an aim to bring the Dalits of Bihar into the mainstream of society.

When she entered rural areas around Patna and realized what the reality was, she noticed that upper caste people used to consider Moosahaars untouchable.

In the very beginning, she was living in Bihar to see people from Dalit communities for the sake of curiosity but when she witnessed here extremely poor conditions, she took the decision to do something for them.

Lived A Lifestyle Of Poverty 

In Chak Dumri village near Patna, Sudha Verghese began to live with people from the Moosahaar community. She accepted poverty and unhygienic conditions as a way of life. For the next 21 years, she lived in these conditions only.

Sudha engaged in conversation with a few women from her foundation. She made a Patna based lady Nari Gunjan to talk to those unemployed youngsters who used to drink alcohol aimlessly and never did anything productive. Then she got to know that they wanted to engage in some physical activity like playing cricket. Now she took aim to educate women from these communities.

In order to improve the lifestyle of men, she got a cricket kit for those youngsters and with every new day, situations started to change. Those youngsters who used to drink aimlessly were now involving themselves in cricket and other physical activities.

When their village's team participated in a cricket tournament held in a nearby village and won it, that moment was not less than a miracle because lots of positive changes were now visible in those directionless youngsters. Sudha's efforts were now really taking shape.

Her Dedication Towards Them

Till now, Sudha has established 10 Anand Shiksha Kendra for children of the age group of 4 to 7 years. She has also established 75 organizations for teenage welfare from the Moosahaar community. Now she has been living in Bihar for the past three decades.

For extraordinary efforts to refurbish the life of those Moosahaar people she has been honored with the Padma Shri. 

These are Sudha Varghese's herculean efforts due to which the lifestyle of these Dalits improved. Her life journey has proved that there is no age of taking a life-changing resolution.

Hats off to her efforts.