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Image Credit: palawi.org, NDTV
The Inspiring Story Of Mangal Shah, Who Mothered Over 100 HIV+ Abandoned Children
Writer: Ratika Rana
Her primary objective is to inform, promote, educate and cultivate readers through writing.
India, 3 April 2022 5:45 AM GMT
Editor : Ankita Singh |
A literature lover who likes delving deeper into a wide range of societal issues and expresses her opinions about the same. Keeps looking for best-read recommendations while enjoying her coffee and tea.
Creatives : Ratika Rana
Her primary objective is to inform, promote, educate and cultivate readers through writing.
Mangal Shah and her daughter Dimpal Palawi saw two HIV+ toddlers under a cow shed whose parents had died due to the disease. The lack of orphanages for HIV+ children pushed the mother-daughter duo to start Palawi Foundation.
In India, almost 1,50,000 children under the age of 15 years have HIV/AIDS, and nearly 22,000 infections are added annually. Children account for 7% of all new HIV infections, and more than 90% of HIV infections in children result from maternal-to-child transmission. However, only a handful of people come forward to provide shelter to the infected children. Maharashtra's Mangal Arun Shah or Mangaltai came forward to embrace more than 125 children abandoned because of HIV. Now over 70 years of age, Mangaltai's journey for changing the lives of marginalized and vulnerable women started long back.
How Palawi Foundation Started?
In 2001, Mangaltai and her daughter Dimpal were working to create awareness about HIV/AIDS amongst sex workers in Maharashtra's Pandharpur City. However, they heard that there were two children abandoned in a cowshed. None of the villagers came forward to help the abandoned children since they were HIV positive. The two children were crying mercilessly and had wounds on their bodies, and insects were crawling on them. They immediately rushed the children to the nearby hospital, which declined to admit them because there was no government procedure in hospitals for people living with HIV/AIDS.
Home To Over A Hundred Children
"At this time in 2001, with all my courage, compassion and love, the project Palawi, under Prabha Hira Pratisthan, began its mission to provide shelter and care to such children", the report on their official website mentioned. What started with just two children had become a shelter home for over a hundred by 2020. However, COVID-19 inevitably affected the organization's functioning, which faced several challenges due to the lockdown.
The Logical Indian salutes the spirit of Mangaltai and her daughter Dimple Palawi for breaking the barriers of widespread myths about vulnerable and disadvantaged groups in society and making the country, and the world, a better place.
Also Read: Over 40% Of Odisha's Primary Class Students Score Less Than 20% Marks In Odia, Maths And English
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