Didi Poem by Asit Kumar Sanyal

Sudha Varghese
A catholic nun and social worker
Also known as didi … ‘Sudha didi'
devoted her life to the Musahar community
The untouchable Dalit of Bihar
and Uttar Pradesh.
Sudha, a resident of kottayam district of Kerala
moved to Bihar to work for the poor
At the age of sixteen
With the sisters
at a Roman Catholic convent school
‘Notre Dame Academy' in Bihar
She got training there for few years
Learnt English and Hindi
And worked as a teacher
For few years.
In 1986 she resigned from her job
And moved into the Tola of Musahar,
The lowest cast of India
To educate them
She built a small house with bricks and mud
Covered by a thatched roof
In Musahar village ‘Jamsaut' of Danapur block
And started residing with them
Who faced decades of exclusion.
At first, in her home …
She convened a group of teenage girls
Taught them reading, writing, sewing
At the same time she collected funds
from her parents, siblings, community
and well wishers
And started vocational training for girls
in nutrition, sanitation and money management
also taught them nursing,
preliminary medical assistance
and other skills
that are economically valuable
When she got a UNICEF grant in Dollar
And help from Bihar government in Rupee
She increased her centers
‘Nari Gunjan' to 50
And opened two residential school for girls
Named ‘Prerna' In Patna and Gaya.
She dared to reside 21 years
with Musahar community
whose crime rate is very high
And during her stay she acquired
a law degree to fight cases for woman
who faced sexual abuse and rape.
She got Padmashree
The highest civilian award in 2006
for her work.
She is now 66 years old
and served complete 50 years for dalits
She said, 'I lived one thousand lives
And died one hundred deaths
in those fifty years'.