Suman Akhori

Sensations and feelings are created in many ways. Either by seeing others or by experiencing themselves. Smt. Suman Akhori Ji is one such personality who has witnessed the worse condition of the women around her village decided to do something.

Being brought up in a rural environment, Suman Ji’s considerateness is more visible towards that environment. As a child, she saw that the women around her were leading miserable life because of their poverty. Her sympathy was so intense towards them that instead of spending the money she used to get for lunch, she distributed it among the deprived women so that their condition could be improved.

Due to a little financial strength, those women started living by feeding sattu to rickshaw pullers. Suman Ji found this approach exceptionally effective. She felt vastly self-satisfied and decided that development cannot be possible without making them self-reliant. Inspired by this happening she decided that she will work for the development and self-reliance of these women her entire life.

The second reason for undertaking work of this nature was that from a general description, she came to know that in Palamu district, due to the lack of self-reliance in women, the incidences of domestic violence have become excessive. So, in this way neither they can work outside the house, nor do they have the freedom to live and eat independently. Neither there is any arrangement for their education nor for their health. Therefore, considering all these dire situations, Suman Ji resigned from the post at GLA College and laid the foundation of ‘Jagruti Mahila Mandal’ on 13th April 1988.

This organization works only for the development of women and to make them self-reliant. Formerly, Suman Ji used to conduct door-to-door visits and awaken women about their rights. There was an enormous protest in society for doing such work and she even had to listen to abuses.

Sometimes the doors of the houses were closed on seeing Suman Ji. The malevolent society of Palamu was assuming that this is a worthless woman who would destroy their houses by breaking their women. The men maintained that whatever you have to say tell us, our women will not come out of the house. In this way, Suman Ji had to face a lot of struggles in the initial period. However, she made continuous efforts to maintain her goal in mind and she also got due success.

‘Jagruti Mahila Mandal’ Sanstha gradually started forming ‘self-help groups’ to make women self-reliant and ensured easy access to them by connecting them with banks. First 2000 women were linked in self-help and 1200 were motivated to do self-employment by securing loans from banks.

Along with this, it was felt that without training attaining employment is not possible. Therefore, this organization also started the work of giving training to women. For this, the initiation of these two types of undertakings started here. The first is short-term, in which short-term training is accorded to make them employable. The other is, long-term, in which training is given for a longer period of time and in a better way self-employment is made.

Today, this organisation has made more than 60,000 women self-reliant from around 5000 self-help groups. On one hand, this effort gave respect to women, while also making them aware of their rights. Economic stability helps in securing self-respect. This organization in particular made women live with dignity by making them financially sound.

Seeing the importance of this work, Smt. Suman Akhori Ji was honoured with multiple recognitions and awards. For the further progress of the sentiment of leading an independent and self-reliant life, ‘Sant Eshwer Foundation’ has decided to honour her with ‘Sant Eshwer Sewa Samman’ for the year 2019.