‘Nirmala Purandare overcame all challenges to win’

‘Nirmala Purandare overcame all challenges to win’

PUNE: Introducing the concept of nursery (pre-primary) education in the State and child nurturing, particularly among the rural population, 86-year-old Nirmala Purandare passed away on Saturday after a long illness. She is survived by husband historian Babasaheb Purandare, three children and grand-children. 

Founder of Vanasthali Rural Development Centre, Nirmala worked for enrichment of women and starting nurseries for children between ages of three to six years. She believed these children who come to school directly at the age of six were deprived of educational skills. 

“She started nurseries in the State way before the government did. She was born in Baroda but her parents sent her to Satara along with her siblings for completing their education. She completed her matriculation. Her maiden name was Kumud Majgaonkar, but after her marriage to Babasaheb in 1949, she became Nirmala Purandare,” said Dr Chitralekh Purandare, her close relative. 

“After marriage, she came to stay near Renuka Swarup High School. She came in contact with Achyut Apte’s Students’ Welfare Committee (Vidyarthi Sahayak Samiti) through her neighbour who was associated with the Samiti. There she realised that students who come to city from rural areas miss out on many things because of lack of early training in formative years,” said Vanasthali Secretary Bharati Bhide.

“Thus, the seed of Vanasthali was sown when Nirmala was working with the samiti,” she said, adding that Vanasthali came into existence in 1981. She decided to impart education to children aged between three and six years. But then who will provide them the required education, so she started training  girls and women for it. 

“Disciplined, pragmatic, determined, tough yet liberal were some of her qualities which helped her in the perfect planning of Vanasthali and its programmes,” said her colleague at Vanasthali Shalaka Thakur. 

Thakur said, “Forty years ago when she sowed the seed of Vanasthali, there were no lights, vehicles or other facilities to reach the rural population. Yet, her determination made it all possible. She aimed at child education and completed her aim winning over every challenge that came in her path. Her aim helped in reducing dropout rate among school children and cleared the misconception that school means punishment.”

“It empowered the rural girls and women who told her that she was the first lady who introduced the concept of child nurturing to them,” added Thakur. “Through her work, she created a chain of work and built up Vanasthali, which now is spread over nine districts of the State,” added Bhide. 

Thakur said, “While training the young girls to become teachers, she also framed a course textbook which got approval from UNICEF. This book was so simple that any girl who knows basic reading and writing can learn from it and teach the children.” 

“She acquired command over English and French languages. She was closely associated with Friends of France. Her vision, determination and underlying passion to enrich the women inspired me to write a book on her,” said Manik Kotwal, who wrote the book ‘Swayamsiddha’, on her.

Kotwal said, “I have been associated with her and Vanasthali for last 26 years. She created and managed the entire operations from here. We used to be away from home working in rural areas. Her work inspired me to write a book and thus the book was released in 2015.”

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