Anuradha Bhosale on Castes, Religion and Her Sacred Mission
Anuradha Bhosale is a highly cherished hero to thousands of impoverished children and their families. Ms Bhosale is a renowned grassroots women’s rights and anti-child labor activist based in Kolhapur, India where more than 35,000 children are involved in daily labor for local industries. A former child-laborer herself at the age of six, she has spent the past 20 years fighting for the prevention of child exploitation, labor, trafficking, and female infanticide.
[note: This interview was first published at www.gandhiforchildren.org]
Owning to her heroism and accomplishments Anuradha has been called the ‘Bandit Queen of India’s Social Movement’, likened to India’s legendary ‘Bandit Queen’, Phoolan Devi who went from ordinary village woman to seasoned bandit of northern India and finally an elected member of Indian Parliament before being gunned down by unknown assassins.
As founder of the WCRC (Women and Child Rights Campaign), Anuradha has educated, trained and empowered thousands of widowed, divorced and deprived women in the rural areas of India to stand up and fight for their rights as allowed by the Indian constitution. 52,000 of them now receive some $714,000 in monthly government pension checks ro which they were previously unaware of being entitled.
