Of Struggles, setbacks & awe-inspiring achievements

by Madhuri Xalxo

Madhuri shares her impression of Sherin Asha’s journey and work. They met each other in Pune at an Insight group meeting last year. Madhuri is a lawyer who was then based in Ranchi, she is currently pursuing her masters, Sherin Asha is an activist  based in Chennai, her broad area of interest is education.

Often we hear of success stories of people and desire to replicate it in our own lives. There is a dream that gets woven and we run after it – almost getting there or maybe collapsing in the seeming impossibilities. When the circumstances are rough and the resources few, it is the courage, determination and perseverance that mark the beginning of such successful journeys’. A journey which then in itself becomes more relevant than the finish. In this section, therefore, we share of such struggles, heartbreaking setbacks and awe-inspiring achievements of dalit and adivasi women who made the odds their strength, the setbacks their driving force and are now lighting the lives of numerous fellow brothers and sisters.

Sherin Asha is a young, dynamic and a beautiful woman from Chennai who leads Velicham, an organisation which provides opportunities for first generation students struggling with education owing to personal and financial limitations. Through Velicham, Sherin has turned dreams into reality for as many as hundred and fifty students who at some point had given up studies at the primary level itself. These students are now pursuing courses of nursing, engineering, medical, I.T.I, etc. with the support and assistance of Velicham.

Dressed in jeans and kurta, Sherin appears modern in her ways – as if catching my thoughts she immediately says, ‘I appear trendy but you know it’s not fashion for me, it’s its durability and cheapness; two pairs of jeans and kurta is all I require to cover myself for a whole year and more.’ As she begins talking of her personal struggle during her early days and the continuous hardship thereafter on account of being a dalit woman, my mind reverberates with what she has just said on pain, ‘it is not the personal pain we bear – it’s the pain of our community.’

in school

Sherin had a tough, really tough time in school. She shares of being kicked, severely beaten in the name of strict rules and disciplining. She remembers starving in hostel as there was not enough food for all, doing menial jobs like cleaning the house, watering the plants, doings dishes in the house of school teachers in return for their leftover stale food, being called ugly, blacky, negro and her friends making innumerable attempts of changing her look by continuously changing her hairstyle, ‘but it never made a difference’, she says. It was at this juncture, Sherin says, she resolved to prove herself. The first step, she says, she took in this direction was by putting on positive thinking and restraining all negative thoughts that would come in the way like anger, dislike, hatred, etc.

nurturing a calling

After school, Sherin began her career as a hostel warden of the same school in which she once received education. The job was challenging and the newly ascribed role of warden in a place wherein once she was a student made the situation even more complicated. So, Sherin left her former job and went into the marketing field. She was in the marketing field till she was pulled out by a gentleman who noticed a strong desire in her to do something for the less privileged in an NGO meeting which Sherin had attended with a friend just like that. The NGO work required her to travel to different places and during the course of such travel she met people who shared with her abominable atrocities meted out to them on account of their lower caste status. Until then, Sherin says, she was not conscious of the length and breadth of caste atrocities. She in particular remembers this dalit man who was planning to stand as a candidate for elections. He had shared his fear of being killed by upper caste people because he had dared to do something that was not reserved for the people of his caste. With a lot of pain and anguish, Sherin shares that this man in fact got killed in front of the police station with six other people who had gone along with him to the police station to submit a letter for protection under the law. ‘Few days after his burial, on his grave I had solemnly affirmed to carry his work, Ambedkar’s work’ reaffirms Sherin. ‘My mother was really scared and would ask me again and again not to talk about Ambedkar’, recalls Sherin. After this incident, Sherin says, she shifted to Pondicherry and began focusing on the need of the people. As she got connected with like minded people, she began supporting all the movements. She was even appointed as the National and State Level Co. Convenor of Human Rights Forum for Dalit Liberation.

trials and tribulations…

Choosing to care for her own was not an easy job, it has cost Sherin unimaginable pain of being falsely labelled as a terrorist and being jailed for six odd months. She says she was pregnant when she was taken into custody and was being beaten and tortured. At that time, she recalls, no one came to her rescue, not her husband, not even one organisation that she had been associated with. Eventually, it was her mother. ‘I was not deterred by any of these incidents’, says Sherin, ‘and continued with my work’. As it was becoming increasingly difficult to remain with a husband who by himself would do nothing, keep asking her for money and also would not let her work with any organisation, Sherin says, she had to tearfully part ways with him. When she came to Chennai, she says, ‘she had no place to stay; she slept on the road side; on the platform; from zero I started all over again with the help of a few friends.’

today, Sherin successfully runs Velicham, an organisation which is committed to rebuilding communities by providing quality higher education to all children especially those belonging to the marginalised communities. For more information on Velicham log in to www.velicham.org.