Ms. Varghese made millions of Musahar people realize that they too are human beings, they too have rights and they can and should raise their voices for their rights and against the injustice done to them.
In the 1980s, they started with a community that thought their women were destined to be raped and sexually assaulted. Ms Varghese, through decades of fighting in the streets, government offices and courts, has brought the community to a level where no one, no matter how caste or economically powerful, can escape the law after committing such heinous crimes. Can’t escape. She became their voice when they were voiceless and ultimately, she gave them their voice so that they could fight their own battles.
Literacy was an alien concept to the Musahars. The literacy rate of the Musahars was less than one percent, the lowest among all the Scheduled Castes of Bihar. Ms. Varghese has so far educated forty thousand children in the community. The girls studying in her Prerna School have shown on various international platforms that they can compete successfully even with students from developed countries like Japan, South Korea, Western Europe, America etc.
He lived his entire life with one dream for the upliftment of the Musahar people. Her quest took her thousands of kilometers on foot or by bicycle to every corner of Bihar, earning her the name ‘Cyclewali Didi’. Lakhs of Musahars living in tolas (huts) across the state know him by this name.
Twelve years of dedicated efforts are counted as tapas in Indian mythology. Sudha’s work in Bihar is nothing more than five consecutive tapasyas that lasted for almost six decades and are still going strong. He is a modern Karmayogi, who has spent days and nights with a selfless desire to empower the poorest, most oppressed and least educated and thus least empowered community even in the poorest state of the country.