16 Facts About Sindhutai Sapkal

Sindhutai Sapkal was awarded the Padma Shri in 2021 and many other awards in the Social Work category.

Sindhutai Sapkal was married off at age 12 to Shrihari Sindhutai Sapkal, who was 20 years older than her, and moved to Nawargaon, Seloo in Wardha.

Sindhutai Sapkal later found herself in Chikhaldara, where she started begging for food.

Sindhutai Sapkal had to beg even harder to feed ever the larger family.

Sindhutai Sapkal decided to become a mother to everyone who came across to her as an orphan.

Sindhutai Sapkal later gave away her own daughter to the Shrimant Dagdu Sheth Halwai trust of Pune, to eliminate the feeling of partiality between her own child and the adopted children.

Details of Sindhutai Sapkal's struggle were provided in the weekly Optimist Citizen on 18 May 2016:.

Sindhutai Sapkal decided to fight for proper rehabilitation of the helpless tribal villagers.

Sindhutai Sapkal's efforts were acknowledged by the Minister of Forests and he made appropriate arrangements for alternative relocation.

Sindhutai Sapkal agreed that the villagers should not be displaced before the government had made appropriate arrangements at alternative sites.

When Prime Minister Indira Gandhi arrived to inaugurate the tiger project, Sindhutai Sapkal showed her photographs of an Adivasi who had lost his eyes to a wild bear.

Sindhutai Sapkal nurtured over 1,500 orphaned children and through them had a grand family of 382 sons-in-law and 49 daughters-in-law.

Sindhutai Sapkal has been honoured with more than 700 awards for her work.

Sindhutai Sapkal used award money to buy land to make a home for orphaned children.

Sindhutai Sapkal died of a heart attack in Pune, Maharashtra, on 4 January 2022, at the age of 73.

The 2010 Marathi film Mee Sindhutai Sapkal by Anant Mahadevan is a biopic inspired by the true story of Sindhutai Sapkal.