Rashtra Sevika Samiti, the women’s wing of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, will open a girls’ hostel for those orphaned during the Himalayan tsunami at Dehradun. The samiti has opened 22 such hostels across India. Efforts are also on to remarry girls, and women in the Dehradun region by finding them suitable grooms after most of the young brides lost their life partners, Shantha Kumari, national chief of the samiti said.
Noting that most men in Dehradun region who were involved in business of ferrying tourists to Kedarnath were wiped out, Shantha Kumari said that the tragedy is that these sole bread winners in many cases have left behind young brides, some of whom are teenagers. “Practice of child marriage is still there in these hilly regions, and the samiti is trying to reach out them through the hostel in Dehradun,” she said.
The main focus in the hostels run by the samiti including the one in Dehradun, according to Shantha Kumari is to empower women by them involving in capacity building exercises and helping them lead their lives independently. The training is also helping hostel mates to contribute and give something back to the nation, apart from ensuring that they develop individually, she said, adding that they are also being trained in using social media as well.
Samiti volunteers along with their counterparts from RSS are assisting local administration in the deluge hit areas by still operating ‘roti sabjee’ centres for the homeless and those who are in dire need of two square meals a day, she said. While the team from the samiti has visited two deluge-hit villages of Omla near Uttarkashi and Nunha near Dehradun, Shantha said the second team will leave for Uttarakhand later this week for relief and rehabilitation purposes.
