Shrihari Sapkal is the husband of social activist Sindhutai Sapkal popularly known as ‘Mother of Orphans’, passed away on Saturday morning due to an old-age ailment in her Chikhaldara Ashram near Amravati.
Profile Summary
| Full Name | Shirhari Sapkal |
| Gender | Male |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Marital Status | Married |
| Spouse | Sindhutai Sapkal |
| Famous as | husband of Sindhutai Sapkal, who is known as ‘Mother of Orphans’ |
Outside the fact that Shirhari Sapkal is the husband of Sindhutai Sapkal, there is no other information about his personality.
Who is Shirhari Sapkal’s Spouse, Sindhutai Sapkal?
Sindhutai Sapkal was an Indian social worker and social activist known particularly for her work in raising orphaned children in India. She was awarded the Padma Shri in 2021 in Social Work category.
Early Life of Sindhutai Shirhari Sapkal’s Spouse
Sindhutai was born on 14 November 1948, in Pimpri Meghe village in Wardha district in the then Central Provinces and Berar of India to Abhimanyu Sathe, a cowherder. Being an unwanted child, she was referred to as Chindhi (Marathi for “piece of rag”). Abject poverty, family responsibilities and an early marriage forced her to quit formal education after she successfully passed the fourth standard. Sapkal was married off at age 12 to Shrihari Sapkal, who was 20 years older than her, and moved to Nawargaon village, Seloo in Wardha. The marriage did not last long and at the age of 20, she was left on her own to care for a girl child.
Sindhutai Sapkal later found herself in Chikhaldara, where she started begging for food. In the process, she realised that there were many children abandoned by their parents and she adopted them as her own. She had to beg even harder to feed ever the larger family. She decided to become a mother to everyone who came across to her as an orphan. She later gave away her own daughter to the Shrimant Dagdu Sheth Halwai trust of Pune, to eliminate the feeling of partiality between her own child and the adopted children.
Details of Sapkal’s struggle were provided in the weekly Optimist Citizen on 18 May 2016
Conclusion
Sapkal devoted herself to orphans. As a result, she was fondly called “Mai”, which means “mother”. She nurtured over 1,500 orphaned children and through them had a grand family of 382 sons-in-law and 49 daughters-in-law. She has been honoured with more than 700 awards for her work. She used award money to buy land to make a home for orphaned children.
