Projects at Vidarbha

Dear Brothers & Sisters ,

The other day at ashram we met with Br. Eknath who is in charge of the various seva activities in Vidarbha region . He shared with us an experience stating that there was a tribal family consisting of 9 members - grandfather ,grandmother ,son ,daughter in law and 3 grandchildren who were summoned to court for stealing the rice from a nearby village field. His crime was that he stole the rice from the paddy fields and fed his family who were hungry for many days .The judge found this man as guilty for stealing from somebody's property and as he was poor penalised him with a sum amount of Rs 2.00/- and the lawyers fees was Re 1.00/- which the family did not have to pay .Yes that's right the family did not have Rs 3 to pay as fine .This is the condition of some tribal people .Its so difficult to believe that in today's world when even beggars don't accept anything below Re 1 these people do not have it !!!!

A substantial section of people in the village are from lower income group and have agriculture as their main income and on account of various soci economic probelms are living on the verge of poverty .In many houses food is prepared only 3-4 days a week ,The people lack basic clothing ,the schools are far away whereby the children have to walk 10 kms daily ,Brilliant students are deprived of higher education due to high fee stucture for the courses ,The women in the villages are housewifes and many are widows who have lost their husbands who owed large sum of debt and committed suicides.There are young girls who do not have fathers and are of marriageable age but cannot bear the expense of a basic marriage.

We would be taking up activities to help these people lead a better life .Dear Brothers and sisters do come up with your suggestions on the activities we can undertake.

Have a Wonderful Week!!!!

Always at Her Feet
Admin