Charting her destiny

8220;Those days, my aim, like all young girls was to become a good housewife like my mother, tending for my family and the elderly. So I enrolled for Home Science, after completing school,8221; says Ghorpade. At 20, her marriage was fixed with Shambhusing Ghorpade, a royal family from Gajendragadh, Karnataka, and so college education came to a halt. At her new home, she spent time teaching the servants8217; children English, and training the daughters of the villagers8217; families to learn other skills, to avoid becoming Devadasis.

8220;There was a myth amongst the villagers that if the daughter refused to enter the Devadasi system, somebody in the family would die. I tried to reason with them that death is inevitable,8221; she says. Along with her husband, she also worked for reforms in the rich cotton belt where stealing and side-trading was rampant, and they severely criticised by the traders.

Destiny struck a fatal blow when Ghorpade lost her husband suddenly in 1970. 8220;They told me he had a brain haemorrhage. It was a big shock in my life. 8220;My father bought me home and encouraged me to continue my studies. However, I felt I could not cope 8211; it was a numbing experience,8221; she recalls. But her father persisted and she enrolled at SP College for graduation in social sciences. 8220;My father said 8211; leave everything, your education will be your property. It was his dream, that I study and complete my Ph.D,8221; she says. After her graduation, she received numerous prizes and for her post-graduation, she received the Apte Scholarship.

8220;During my graduation, I did not want to take money from my father. My first job was at a technical institute, where I taught stitching for Rs 200 a month. People criticised my father, saying that a big landowner is making his widowed daughter work. My father said, I pay each servant Rs 200, but I wanted to work for my self-respect,8221; she says.

8220;He encouraged me to take up honorary work, which I did for some time, but later I felt it was hypocritical, on the one hand my brother pays for my education and on the other I take the credit for doing honorary work. I started taking remuneration, without my father8217;s knowledge,8221; she remembers.

At this juncture Ghorpade met Yedunath Thatte, author and social worker, social activists Dr Sudhir Kothari and Chandrakant Shah, who led her to believe in social service and national integration, and Commissioner Ghatge, Chairman of Karve Institute then and Leprosy Department, Kondhwa Hospital, who encouraged her to work for the leprosy-afflicted. 8220;Without the wonderful people I met, I would not have achieved what I have today. People have been my wealth,8221; she states emphatically.

8220;My mother always told us, Tyat kai motha, kela mhanje hota, what is so great about it, if you do it, it will be done. Work saw me through difficult times,8221; she says. And work became her guiding light.

During her studies, she decided not to go home for the holidays and worked with social workers like Amitatai Wagh, who was working for tribal education in Thane, learning all the time. After post-graduation, Ghorpade worked at the Hubli Hospital for the Handicapped in Karnataka as a medical social worker and worked with leprosy patients, because she had no funds for her PhD programme. Her father later persuaded her to leave, because he felt that 8220;if I contracted the disease, who is going to look after me.8221; She lost her father around this time, and regrets that she could not fulfill his dream while he was alive. Ghorpade got another job at Kosbad Thane as a teacher at the Krishi Vidnyan Kendra, which dealing in tribal education. Her novel methods of integrated teaching and nurturing anganwadis won her accolades in the form of awards from UNICEF and Government of Maharashtra.

8220;While I was working here, Shobhana Ranade of the Gandhi National Memorial Society wrote often, asking me to join them. I eventually accepted the post of Director.8221; Ghorpade worked at Gandhi Memorial for three years till 1986 and finally realised her dream of doing her doctorate on tribal education when she received an ICSR Fellowship. 8220;I was over 40 then and though my ground work on the socialisation process of warli children was done, I had to complete my field work, 8221; she recalls. This was another challenge 8211; she went to two remote adivasi villages for data collection, Aswali and Jalwai, where she almost lost her life, 8220;because they thought I was trying to brainwash them and take away their kids.8221;

In 1992, Ghorpade finally got her coveted PhD degree. Ghorpade joined BAIF in 1989 as the first lady scientist, where she has been able to synthesise her years of struggle and implement the ideas she developed over the years 8211; teaching women money and credit the wawuli programme, socialisation process of nomadic tribes, and recently watershed development and energy conservation. Today she holds the post of Senior Research Programme Coordinator and Director of Manibhai Desai Management Training Centre, Warje.

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