Shantha Sinha was born in 1950 in Nellore, India. “Although patriarchy is deeply entrenched in Indian society, I have been fortunate, coming from a family that encouraged women, their choices and mobility. My grandmother Annapurna, who was a follower of Gandhi, has worked with girls from the untouchable community,” explains the activist.
Shantha’s grandmother has paved the way for women in the family to participate in public life, and Shantha herself, being a smart and motivated young woman from a family of educators, was eager to go to college, receiving her Master’s degree in Political Science in 1970, followed by a PhD in 1976. It was during her work as an assistant professor in Political Science that she started visiting the villages around the University of Hyderabad to better understand the predicament of the poor. She explains that she wanted to see with her own eyes the marginalized and the Dalit community (also known as the untouchables), just so that she could “learn from reality around me and make my teaching in the class more informed.” What she had discovered there left her in shock: unspeakable conditions, forced labor and most of all – children workers.
“I started to mobilize them as a collective to claim from the government what was due to them by law on issues relating to freedom for laborers entrapped in debt bondage and minimum wages for female farm workers who worked hard in inhumane conditions and faced caste discrimination,” she says. Sinha’s activity did not go unnoticed, and not in a good way. The questions Shantha Sinha asked, the conversations she had with people abandoned and ignored for so long – all that was not taken well by the people in power, who for years have been benefitting from bonded and child labor. “I was witness to the unleashing of untold violence and pressure. I felt this injustice had to be stopped. There was no looking back,” recalls Shantha.
She was left especially heartbroken by the sight of children having to work morning till night instead of studying. Girls were particularly vulnerable to the system rigged to repress them. Exploited and violated, they had no chance for a better future, and Shantha knew she couldn’t let it go on like that. “They had no voice in the family, the society around them and certainly not in the system. Without education, their fate was sealed. I felt that there was a need to bridge this gap and create a caring environment. And thus began my journey to abolish child labor and get every child to school and further on, to protect children rights.” She got to work right away.
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Shantha Sinha with the girls she rescued from child labor and forced marriage |
In 1981, Shantha Sinha co-founded the MV Foundation, a family trust named after her grandfather, Professor Mamidipudi Venkatarangaiya, and set up to deliver every child to school, where they truly belong. The Foundation’s core approach is based on the conviction that no child should work and there is an “inextricable link between the program for universalization of education and abolition of all forms of child labor.”
That phrasing is intentional, because what has appalled Shantha Sinha even more than the dire situation with children labor was the fact that the government and society in general seemed to be completely fine with status quo. She simply couldn’t believe their indifference. “The most challenging aspect of my work was the absence of shock or outrage that children are working and not in schools. The double standards of the middle class and the elite that aspire for the best for their own children but would not see children of the poor as same and equal, the state’s complicity in perpetuating violence on children and in not investing in protecting their rights have been the biggest challenge,” she admits. Some changes needed to happen on the political level, and she would be the one to see to that, too.
In 2007, she was appointed Chairperson of the National Commission for Child Rights (NCPCR) and served two terms in that position until 2013. She has laid the very foundation for the NCPCR and built institutional and lasting mechanisms, structures and processes for monitoring children’s rights across the country.
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Shantha Sinha delivers a keynote address on International Human Rights Day organized by Supreme Court of India, 2011 |
The impact Shantha Sinha has had on the future of her country is hard to fathom. Thousands of children doomed to the vicious circle of poverty and forced labor had a chance to have a completely different life and became schoolteachers, doctors, nurses, engineers, farmers, real estate dealers, videographers, journalists and – of course – crusaders for child rights. That’s what makes Shantha Sinha happy and keeps her going every day: “I am filled with gratitude to the poor parents who have made enormous sacrifices to send their children to schools. I have witnessed the selfless work of local youth, their capacity to love and their magnanimity. They worked relentlessly facing untold harm as child rights defenders and took forward a non-violent struggle winning over even the most difficult of adversaries. Their moral strength is so gratifying.”
Changing the hearts and minds of the community members wasn’t easy. The Indian society is very traditional, and Shantha’s revolutionary ideas did not always find the understanding she hoped for. Fortunately, she had help. “One can never forget the support from the strong and honest functionaries in the system, the schoolteachers, police and local officials, as well as some of the finest officials at the state and national level who gave us wholehearted support while remaining anonymous. I owe it also to our generous donors, both individual and institutional, who put their faith and trust in us and encouraged us in all endeavors,” she says gratefully.
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Shantha Sinha with adolescent girls at the Convention on Gender Equality, Girls’ Education and Against Gender Violence |
So much has been achieved, but still, so much more needs to be done, and Shantha Sinha is nowhere near resting on her laurels. “It is so essential for each one of us, locally and globally, to take a categorical stand in favor of children’s rights and also the causes taken by human rights defenders. It must be an expression of moral indignation leading to action and daily practice,” she claims.
“Those in power and authority must have the ability to listen to the truth and the voices of children and protect them with a sense of urgency and make the lives of children safe and secure in the belief that defense of children is the only way to peace and harmony.”