Buried alive at birth, she’s epitome of woman power

She was nine when activist-author Sunita Aralikar first heard about her lucky escape after her mother’s death. Her father tried to kill Aralikar by burying her alive when she was just 16 days old. Fortunately, her maternal grandfather Kundalikrao Mane rescued her by digging her up from the grave.

“When my grandfather narrated the incident to me, I was too young to grasp the horror of the act and how much I owe him for preventing the infanticide,” says Aralikar, who is now in her 50s and works tiresslessly towards the welfare of women in rural Maharashtra. She has also penned her autobiography ‘Hirkanicha Birhad’ (Hirkani’s House) in Marathi. “Hirkani was a milkwoman during Chhatrapati Shivaji’s time who once scaled down the treacherous slope of the Raigad Fort to return home to her child,” she explains.

Aralikar, who lives in Latur, will be in Mumbai this week to receive the Women Achievers’ Award instituted by the Young Environmentalists Trust on the ocassion of Women’s Day.

“We are felicitating women like Sunita, who have made a positive difference in their community and devoted time and effort in making the world a better place,” says Elsie Gabriel, founder president of the trust. Other women achievers who will receive the award include city-based activist Dolkar Tenzin, who works towards Tibetian issues, and Australian activist Gladys Staines, who works with leprosy-afflicted people in rural Orissa.

Aralikar’s life has been full of challenges and struggles. After surviving her father’s first attempt at killing her, young Sunita was subjected to several life attempts by her stepmother and her paternal uncle. “I am still at a loss to understand why my father wanted me dead, why my stepmother poisoned my food, and why my uncle chased me across the fields with a sickle in his hand,” she says, adding that despite the setbacks her life has turned out well.

She was brought up by her maternal grandparents, who sent her to school in spite of their abject poverty. After passing matriculation, she found a job as a trainee nurse in a hopsital in Latur where she met her future husband Dilip. ‘’We got married despite opposition from his family as I am a Dalit,” she says. The couple now have two sons - the elder works in the US while the younger is a pedriatician in a state-run hospital in Mumbai.

“I feel blessed to have come this far and not become a victim of infanticide. Now, I work with marginalised women in rural areas where girls drop out of school due to gender discrimination or poverty,” she adds.