I will never give any of my children up for adoption as this is not an orphanage but a haven which showers love and affection on the unwanted children of God.

The sight of little kids begging on the roads shocked her into action and her mothering instinct impelled her to feel for the underprivileged ever since she was a child of ten. Today, Delhi-based Anjina Rajgopal, executive director, Sai Kripa, is popularly known as ‘Mummy’ to the many wards she feeds, educates and empowers. Sumitra Senapaty visits the humble organisation that is a haven to the lives it nurtures

She had an impassioned desire that fired her every moment. She wanted to create a place in Noida near New Delhi, where any underprivileged child could walk in, have a meal, spend some time and learn something useful. The realisation of her dream started humbly, yet determinedly, more than a decade ago in a small corner of the locality.

“When I look back at the decisive step I took 17 years ago, I feel a great satisfaction deep down in my heart,” says Anjina Rajgopal, executive director, Sai Kripa. “I had decided to dedicate my life to the cause of underprivileged children. Many people told me, ‘You are crazy, you will get into trouble, you have neither the money nor the connections to do this.’ Family and friends who were concerned about my life warned me about getting into something beyond my control. However, a few encouragingly said, ‘Do it if you believe in yourself’. And I did.” It is difficult to say what Sai Kripa actually is. It is more than just an orphanage, but “to explain all the tasks we have taken on through the years will take me quite a while!” explains Rajgopal, with her warm smile. The list is long...Bal Kutir, the children’s home, Sai Shiksha Sansthan, an English medium school for rural children and Sai Bal Sansar, the non-formal education centre for slum children.... Add to this her various attempts at fund raising and there is the risk of losing track of the activities that have filled her life for more than a decade and a half.

Years later, when Rajgopal was working for a mainstream publication, she saw a nine-year-old boy being severely beaten near the tea stall outside Pyare Lal Bhavan on Bahadur Shah Zafar Road in New Delhi. This literally shocked her into action – she quickly ‘punched’ her employee’s card for attendance at her office and ran back to confront the owner of the tea stall. He had no clue about where the boy had come from; he didn’t even know the boy’s name! Rajgopal decided to take the small child home. She tried her best but she could not locate his parents and so the little boy stayed on at Rajgopal’s house; she named him Rajat. Though she did not realise it then, the seeds of the ‘orphanage’ were sown. Children came in from hospitals and remand homes; some of them had been abandoned. Gradually the numbers grew and Rajgopal soon gave up her job to start a ‘home’ and share her life with these children. Rajat, the first resident of Bal Kutir, is 26 now and training hard to earn a living through carpentry.

The years that followed were not easy. Anxiety, frustration, fear that nothing was moving, dogged the inexperienced social worker. But there was no going back for the gutsy lady. Today, there are 33 children who live together at Bal Kutir, a lively group of toddlers, pre-teens and teenagers, apart from the eight ‘grown up’ children who are now employed and have a taken a flat nearby. Bal Kutir is home to her ‘family’ where the older children take care of the younger ones. “I will never give any of my children up for adoption; as this is not an orphanage but a haven which showers love and affection on the unwanted children of God.”

Contact details: Anjina Rajgopal, Sai Kripa, Children's Home-Bal Kutir;
Z-133/134, Sector 12, Noida, UP. Tel: 91-95124-2536416
Email:anjina2002@yahoomail.co.in

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