A Voice for the Voiceless: Manini Dharmaraj Worlikar's Social Impact
Manini Dharmaraj Worlikar is a social worker from Mumbai, who helped many people regarding admission to school or college students, the arrangement of beds in hospitals for patients, and many more. But one event that stood out in her life was the illegal demolition of Trombay Koliwada village, still in this chaos she stood firmly and helped the people in need. This article tells about her life journey, the challenges she faced during the time when she was doing her social work, and her future vision for society.
Introduction:
Manini Dharmaraj Worlikar studied M.com at Mumbai University. Her father's name is Yashwant Pandurang Keni residing in Malad Mumbai before she got married after marriage she started staying in Worli Koliwada in Mumbai with her husband. She used to do Social work from her early childhood at the age of seven years.
Manini was inspired by Chandrakant Koli of Nagothna Alibaugh who is her role model or turning point in her life. She recalls “One day all of a sudden he found me on Facebook and inspired me to do social work for the community.” She used to do Social work of any need people in the community regarding Caste certificates, 7/12 6/12 of property papers and Maps, admission in school or college students, arrangement of beds in hospitals for patients, Concession in Hospital bills of needy patients, etc social works without any monetary consideration.
In such a way she used to get a new lesson of social work in her life by doing helpful things, she realized she must help needy people, she said: “I realized that God must have selected my life for the needy people of the society as when I was hospitalized for kidney problem and finally I recovered from such a condition of life and death situation on that day onwards I decided to sacrifice my life for the needy people of the community and whole society”.
In 2020 during the Corona period, she provided unselfish services to society. One day she came to know that Trombay Koliwada of Mumbai had been demolished by some officers without giving any notice to the villagers of Trombay Koliwada who were the residents from their forefathers, she added “I got a phone call from Bharatbhushan Vaity, resident of Mahul Koliwada told me to help the innocent people's of Trombay Koliwada who were facing the trouble as we are the Koli bhomiputras original inhabitants of Mumbai then along with Bharat Bhushan Vaity I entered the village to stop the illegal demolition work done by some officer's” She stopped that demolition work by forcing to sleep under the JCB bulldozer to stop the work. She had saved one boy who was in the custody of police in a police van, and then after a long struggle she had saved around 40 to 50 houses being demolished.
During the Corona period along with other members of Aakhil Koli Samaj V Sanskruti Savvardhan Sangh, she went to help the Koli Fishermen Women of Dadar Fish Market whose Fish Market was demolished by BMC Officers and these Koli Fish seller women from lots of trouble as they were forced to sell their fish in open place rain and sun heat in an open place without any basic facilities. And lots of many other incidents she was always ahead for the social work of needy people in the community.
Challenges and Achievements:
One of the biggest challenges that she faced in life was the illegal Demolition of Trombay Koliwada. As soon as when she came to know the news of the Trombay Koliwada demolition along with Mr. Bharatbhushan Vaity they rushed there within an hour and stopped that illegal demolition work. Seeing this success some of the people who are against her made false allegations about her and spread false rumors that she took money but till today nobody has proven whether she had taken money to do the demolition work or to stop the demolition work in Trombay Koliwada.
She considers stopping the illegal demolition work in Trombay Koliwada of Mumbai Koli Community and tackling various Fish market problems of Fish sellers women especially that of Dadar Fish Market of Mumbai as the most significant achievement. Seeing Manini's activeness in Social work for the Community people she was awarded with "ShivChhatrapati Gaurav Puraskar Maharashtra Award 2024" from the Sanjivani Foundation at Nasik Maharashtra and “Global Women's Inspiration Award And Enclave 2024” for Business and Social Work for outstanding example in advancing opportunities for women in Leadership at New Delhi India.
Personal Insights:
To keep helping the community people of the society she had been motivated and inspired by her lots of well-wishers among them was her Guru, Mr. Surendra. Koli of Chendani Koliwada Thane. Mr. Manish Vaity of Rabodi Koliwada Thane, Mr. Bharatbhushan Vaity of Mahul Koliwada Mumbai, and Mr. Marshal Koli of Worli Koliwada Mumbai is one of the well-wishers who always motivated her to keep pushing forward to help the community people through social work.
Manini Dharmaraj keeps a balance between her personal and professional life by following a strict time rule and waking up early in the morning. She describes her daily routine as “I wake up early morning at 4:00 am and worship God then do meditation after that I complete my housework by Morning 10:00 am then 11:00 am to evening 7:00 pm I give my time to social work then after coming back I complete my rest of housework this is my routine day to day life in this way I keep a balance between my career and personal life.”
Impact and Vision:
Manini is currently working on projects based on welfare for women. She works on various projects for economically weaker sections of women to earn money for their livelihood and become economically strong in society. To do this she guides them about some types of small-scale businesses by which they can earn. She added, “In the future, my main motive is for making women entrepreneurs for India's bright future.”
Manini believes that “By doing social work for society I feel satisfied that my life is useful for someone”. Her future goals for the community people's include :
- To save Mumbai's Ancient Koliwadas
- To stop violence against women
- For getting a Reservation for the Koli Community
Conclusion:
Manini advises the women in the society that every woman of the society should stand on her own feet so that she will not be dependent on others. She said, “Your destination and hard work will lead to great results”.
