Within 10 years her work spread to Sindh, Punjab, MP, Delhi, etc. Independence was near but the cost by way of loss of lives and loss of broken homes was immense.
Some new dimensions like bhajan and kirtan mandals, schools, udyog mandir, cutural activities were added. The amount earned out of such activities was totally used for sewa projects. Mausiji also did not spend a single paisa for herself from the honourarium she got. She trained many women as Ramkathakars, and arranged even an abhyasvarg for them. This was not exclusively spiritual but had a strong base of nationality.
Many times Sevikas are unable to attend shakhas and they miss prarthana (prayer meetings) special. In 1995, Vishwa Sangh shibir, was held where small dhwajas (flags) were presented to every participant. It was here that the Samiti started hoisting Bhagwa dhwaja on the housetops on Varsha Pratipada day in the early seventies.
Akhil Bharatiya Sammelan is also a special feature initiated by Mausiji. All Sevikas from diferent states stay together for three days and return with new vigour and workplans after seeing Bharat in miniature form. It was hardly a surprise then that in hotbeds like Assam, she was the motivating force for Sevikas to conduct a fifteen-day camp, next to a crematorium. The young girls preferred this than the option to not hold the camp at all. Often, when bouddhik (speech) was being conducted, dead bodies were being burnt in the neighbourhood. The stench of burning flesh, the sounds of skulls cracking forced many a young girl to choke on her meals. But the camp went on.
When people in border areas of Jammu and Kashmir were under attack by terrorists, the Sevikas from all corners of the country went there to live week after week to provide solace and relief. Or in Hubli in 1993, when communal tension led the administration to ban the hoisting of the national tricolour, the entire ground was guarded by not just policemen but also wire fenced. But the Sevikas managed to outsmart the police, carried their tricolour in an umbrella and succeeded in hoisting it there. As they started chanting Vande Mataram, the police had no other option but to relent.
Mausi Kelkar indeed gave a vision to the Samiti, which has led to a large following in not just this country but in several nations abroad. A Sevika was riddled with leprosy and on learning of her fate, Mausi Kelkar organised a slide show on leprosy at Wardha during a meet, so that all misconceptions were cleared and people'sbehaviour would not deviate away from the patient. She realised the need to start safe hostels for girls in progressive cities of the time if they were to get education.
Apart from these, the Samiti today has seven service based hostels throughout the country. The Nagpur hostel caters to tribal girls of North east, the tribal girls have found sanctuary in the Vanavasi Kanya Chhatravas in Yeotmal, the tribal girls from Manipur are looked after in Bangalore, the daughters of leprosy ridden parents are cared for in Bilaspur, the young girls from snow bound Leh and Laddakh have found sanctuary in Jalandhar while those whose families have suffered terrorist onslaught, are cared for in Jammu hostel.
The fifteenth Sammelan is going to be held at Nagpur in 2005, the birth centenary year of Mausiji.
In her last illness, she was admitted to Medical College hospital, where she became friendly with the doctors and nurses.
The idea of forming charitable public trusts came to her in 1957, the centenary year of Independence. She breathed her last on November 27, 1978. Sevikas from every corner rushed to Nagpur by every available mode of transport. It was a well disciplied antyayatra, maybe for the first time in Nagpur. Her footsteps can still lead the women on the sounds of time.
Leave a Comment