“I need happy endings,” Nomita Chandy, a passionate child rights activist, had told The Hindu in an interview in 2011. She was recounting the story of Minda Cox, a girl born without limbs and adopted by an American from Ashraya, a home for homeless children started by her. Minda has gone on to become an artist.
Ms. Chandy, who passed away earlier this week, was the author of several such happy endings. While Bengaluru-based Ashraya was one of her first initiatives in 1982, she had started many projects over the years.
She started several mobile crèches on construction sites around Bengaluru. Her experience of working in the crèches made her realise that many drop out of education as their parents shuttle between towns. This promoted a unique initiative in 1996, Neelbagh, a residential school for children of migrant workers close to Bengaluru. Currently, around 300 children, many from construction workers’ families, study in Neelbagh from LKG to Class 10.
“Girl children, in particular, are married young because parents fear for their safety. But we also realised how vested migrant workers are in educating their children. A residential school was absolutely vital for them,” she said in an interview with The Hindu .
She often said that her projects grew “organically” from each other and another example of this was Tara, which had its genesis in her experience of running the adoption centre. Tara is a residential centre for abused and abandoned women. It provided for the care of the mother and as well as the child, considering that most mothers give their children away as the last choice.
It was in recognition of many such initiatives that Ms. Chandy was awarded the Padma Shri in 2011. More recently, she had focused attention on revamping the adoption system in India at the level of policy. This was promoted by multiple bureaucratic hurdles and red tape that has made adoption hard in India.
Friends and the family of Ms. Chandy have organised a memorial service at St. Mark’s Cathedral, M.G. Road, at 11 a.m. on Friday.