Social Activist & Lawyer Vandana Shah Miraculous Journey Who Fought Against The Divorcee Taboo

She left home with just Rs. 750 and a commitment to succeed and today she is a famous divorce lawyer. Vandana Shah is an author, columnist​ , and Social Entrepreneur on whom the BBC has made a documentary ‘Invisible Women of India’ which was broadcast worldwide on International Women’s Day. She has also launched Divorcecart, India's first legal app dedicated to divorce that provides 24×7 lawyer assistance online. She lives with the motto, ‘It is better to elevate yourself than to pull down another’.

INCEPTION

'Leaving home at 2 am at just Rs. 750 and nowhere to go' require the huge courage. At 28 Vandana Shah took that hard step to walk away from her in-laws and their abuse for living a life of dignity and she fought her way through all the challenges and obstacles. In her own words "I was the daughter-in-law of a respectable family. That night, I remember weeping out of bewilderment at the cruelty of the family I considered my own, but at the same time, I was determined to survive. Today she is a respected divorce lawyer, helping women going through the same situations, she once went through.

WHAT IS LIFE

She comes from an armed forces background. She grew up in Ambala and soon moved to Mumbai as a teenager. Armed with a degree in Psychology and she decided to study law. In her early twenties, she lost both her parents to cancer. However, despite all the difficulties, she chose to continue her education. She goes back to the life lessons that her parents taught her. Her mother taught her that life is what one makes out of one’s choices.

TURNING POINT

When she left home, her husband filed for a divorce in the year 2000. It took almost 10 years for the verdict to come through. She decided to study law more extensively in a bid to understand what was happening with her own case. Soon, she began running a support group. Many a time, she considered making it a paid-for service. But every time Vandana heard the sadness and helplessness in the voices of some of the women going through the same ordeal as her, so she decided not to. 

DIVORCE: THE TABOO

When a woman goes through a divorce or a troubled marriage, there are several people who give advice on how to make it work, but in reality, they do not realize that emotional and moral support is all that a woman needs at that time. Her relatives were no different. She got no support from any relative, but this actually became a blessing in disguise because it led her to believe that many other women too may be going through the same ordeal. This prompted her to set up India’s first non-judgmental divorce support group for those going through a divorce, which challenges the morals of a patriarchal middle-class society. The group is open to men as well because men really have no recourse to any emotional support. 

ACCREDITATION OF SOCIETY

She wants people to accept divorce as a common occurrence. People today are not willing to put up with all the unhappiness and sorrow that bad marriages entail. They are learning to look beyond the concept of being chained down for seven lifetimes to a spouse who does not value you.

Her Books

Vandana is the author of the bestseller ‘Ex Files’, The Story of my divorce-published by Penguin under the Shobhaa De imprint, which has been launched by the Hon’ble Attorney General of India Mr. Mukul Rohatgi and the Hon’ble Chief Justice of Mumbai High Court. It has been endorsed by Lord Meghnad Desai, PadmaVibhushan Sonal Mansingh and it looks at divorce through a humorous lens. Ex-Files is now a part of the Judicial College syllabus. Her first book, 360 Degrees Back to Life: A Litigant’s Humorous Perspective on Divorce, endorsed by the iconic feminist Gloria Steinem, won an award. Vandana has translated another book on the Jain faith from Hindi to English.