She gives dream and hope of better life to millions from otherwise ignored sections of the society. Anuradha Bhosale, a hero to million child laborers and abandoned women is a social worker and grassroots activist who works for women and children empowerment. She saves children from the trap of forced labor and endows them with education. She has founded NGO Avani and runs the Women’s & Child Rights Campaign with a motto of eradicating forced child labor and empowering the rural women. Great Bhet presents an inspiring story of Avani with Anuradha Bhosale this Saturday, January 18, 2014 at 9.30 pm.
AVANI works with rescued child labor to inculcate the educational and character traits in them. The children are provided food, clothes, shelter, proper medical and health care along with a quality education. They have 40 resident children at the Jeevaba Nana Park, where the Avani residential home is located is 7 kilometers from Kolhapur city. Social worker Anuradha Bhosale is a convener of child rights campaign, member of anti child labor task force and works closely with the children of migrant brickyard workers on their rights to education. She is the founder of the Avani Organization and the Women’s & Child Rights. Her mission is to work towards an end to forced child labor, and to empower rural women who are either widowed or abandoned by their husbands. In the first two years of operation, she rescued over 160 children from the bondage of child laborer and provided effective rehabilitation through government residential homes.
The grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. Arun Gandhi has taken a lead role in providing for the substantial expansion of Avani's work. The Gandhi Worldwide Educational Institute has purchased five acres of land in the rural countryside area of Washi village. This land will be utilized for the effective rehabilitation of the rescued child laborers.
Avani is currently operating and providing support to 36 slums throughout the Kolhapur district. The majority of child laborers have been identified and rescued from tea stalls, hotels, cotton industries, restaurants, construction and brickyards. They also provide counseling to the migrant parents of the children they are providing education to as the children of divorced and widowed women are more likely to be forced into child labor activities.
Avani’s work is extremely extraordinary. It saves the childhood of our future generations and therefore our society should support this organization in every way possible. This organization does not receive any government grants or funding, therefore Anuradha and the Avani staff face many hardships but continue to persevere through their noble journey.
Tune into Great Bhet this Saturday, January 25, 2014 at 9.30 pm to know about this brave girl and her noble work only on IBN-Lokmat.
Missed this episode? You can catch it on Sunday, 26th January 2014 @ 12 noon and 5:00 pm only on IBN-Lokmat.