1. Field Visit 2: Divya Prabha House 2
Divya Prabha: Thane House
Inmates: 25 girls (6-14 years)
Sister in charge: Sister Devditta
This Divya Prabha House was smaller in size compared to the one at Vasai. It has 23 inmates in
it aged between 6-14 years. The first person whom I interviewed was Sister Devditta who
recently joined Divya Prabha in June 2013. Before coming to Divya Prabha, she was working at
Aurangabad and Paithan with the women and the scheduled castes.
About Bedkin, Aurangabad
AT Paithan too she worked for 3 years and here she was responsible for uplifting girls in the
area who were often married at a very young age and were not given proper education. They
had boarding facilities for these girls where they were provided all the basic amenities. There
were a total of 25 girls approximately. This was the pilot project of the Sisters 25 years ago
when they went to house from house, convincing the village people to send their daughters to
school. The reason that they were girls in the adolescent age is enough to understand he
challenges of the Sisters while handling the girls.
At Aurangabad, she was there for 3 years where she worked for women’s empowerment, the
Adivasi tribes as well as the scheduled castes. Self help Groups for women were formed which
helped them to start their own businesses and thus get a livelihood. Here the challenges which
the Sisters had to go through included arranging meetings before 10 in the morning because
that was the only time, women were free.
The Caritas Midas Programme in collaboration with the Aurangabad Diocese funded the work of
the Sisters. The Sisters were also given training by the Caritas Programme in order to undertake
this special task. They also used to monitor these Sisters and their works and conducted regular
sessions on income generation, women’s empowerment, training etc. Many other NGOs also
acted as collaborators in the work.
Sister Winifred: important source of information about Bedkin, Aurangabad
Divya Prabha (Thane)
Sister Devditta joined the House in June 2013. Here her work revolves around taking care of the
children, monitoring their activities, giving them personal, moral and spiritual guidance.

2. Challenges
The Sister found her work challenging while dealing with the adolescent girls but had no
problems regarding the smaller ones. For the teenage girls, Sister Devditta also conducts regular
counselling sessions and calls doctors too. The doctors sometimes give talks on menstrual
cycles, their impact, attraction towards the opposite sex, cleanliness etc. They have a tution
teacher who comes everyday called Ms. Ketki and their all times care taker Ms. Sandhya.
Extra curricular/Leisure time
Four girls go for bharatnyam classes whereas everyone at the house attends piano classes.
During festivals, various groups of young adults or college students come and teach card
making. Sometimes the Rotary, Rotract and other similar clubs organise outings and sessions
for them. Divya Prabha on the other hand organises two outings every year for the kids. Their
last outing was at Uttan on 3rd
January, 2014.
Funding
The House gets donations in kind throughout the year from individual donors and sponsors.
Prem Dhara is an agency that helps the house in getting funds. At present, Sister Devditta is
writing a project for the renovation of the house in order to cater the needs of the grownup
ones. She is addressing this Project Renovation to an American organisation called Hilton Fund
for Sisters. While at Aurangabad, Sister DEvditta had been interacting with the foundation for
funds and therefore is familiar to their criteria’s and functioning. The Hilton fund can provide
funds three times every 7 years and the maximum amount which they can give is 10000 dollars.
However, this large sum is given only under certain condition. They have to be given
professional audits audited by CA professionals against the money which they give. And this
audit is not just one time audit. Throughout the year, the Sisters have to keep them updated
with new audits as to the money spent on various activities. Sometimes, companies and
businesses also give donations as part of their CSR activities. Sister gave the example of Cadbury
who had given a lot of donations in kind to the House.
Case Studies
1. Ankita’s parents got separated and her mother left her with her father. In ANkita’s
words, “Meri maa bhag gayi mujhe chodke”. After some months, even the father wasn’t
able to take care properly and therefore, a Catholic couple brought her to Divya Prabha.
However, now Ankita’s father called the Sisters and told them that he is ready to unite
with his wife and get his daughter back. In the following week, the Sisters will have a
meeting with the father which will decide the future of Ankita. AS for Ankita she is
happy at Divya Prabha but she also doesn’t mind going back to her parents.

3. 2. Khushbu Ashok Yadav who ran away from home, came to Divya Prabha last year. Her
father left her mother long back and then her mother brought her to Mumbai. Here. Her
mother married another man who also left her mother. According to Khushbu, her
second father along with the doctor killed her mother by giving her a poisoned injection.
When asked where her second father is now, she said, “wo pade rehte daru peeke yaha
waha”. She was then sent to her Prem uncle who had a family of his own. Here he used
Khusbhu for all houslehold work and regularly used to beat her. From here she ran away
and then was taken to the remand home. From the remand home, she came to Divya
Prabha.
3. Deepa Naidu Jaykumar: She is the eldest in the house according to age but because of
the cruelties on her, academically, she lags behind. Even she came to DP one year ago.
Earlier she was at Prem Kiran, an Ashram at Badlapur. Because of the sexual abuse
inflicted on the girls here, she was sent to Divya Prabha by her tution Sir. The
grandfather of the Superintendent of Prem Kiran used to give sleeping pills to the girls
and then used them for his sexual pleasure. He didn’t send them to school also but made
them work day and night. Deepa was a victim of this sexual abuse. She confided this
secret in her tution Sir who then brought her to Divya Prabha. When she tried to inform
about these atrocities to the police and the remand home authorities, no one believed
her. At Prem Kiran, there were an odd 80 90 girls, all of whom were the victims. The
grandfather was helped in this task by a Maushi, who also used to beat the girls and
never allowed them to stay together. The shocking part in this interview came when
Deepa said that even in the past while she was with her parents, her father had tried to
molest her but luckily her sister intervened and she called the police who then took her
father to jail. In her words, “ Mere papaji kuch toh ganda karne aaye. Mujhe kuch samjha
nai. Fir jab meri behen aayi, papa ke kapde nai the aur usne fir police ko bulaya. Wo leke
gaye papa ko.” Her father had also in the similar way molested her mother and later
killed her. After drifting her attention from her past, when I asked her about her
ambition, she said she wants to become a beautician. At the end of the interview, Deepa
said that she wants no other girl to go through the tortures which she has gone through.
4. Aishwirya Soma Mallya: (5 years) She used to stay initially at Mashanbhumi (a village
in Khed, Maharashtra) with her father but later a couple brought her to Bhiwandi with
them because she was not safe in the hands of her father. The couple then took her to
the remand home. She did not like the remand home because the people here also used
to beat her. Then a lady working at the remand home (whom she calls as Char number
bai i.e. the fourth ward care taker) brought her to Divya Prabha. She was very innocent
and therefore I did not get to hear much because she telling me about ghost stories that
happened at the remand home and about her friends and ambitions. She is very happy at
Divya Prabha and misses her mom a lot who was killed by her father. She does not like
her father and that is why doesn’t even miss him. She is not aware of the whereabouts
of her mother.
5. Rani: She is a resident of Diva where she used to live with her parents. Her mother was
killed by her father and she was a witness to the murder because the lights of her
parents’ room were on. Later the police put her father in jail. Landlord of the house took
Rani to the police station from where she was sent to some older girl whom she called
didi. The girl sent her to the remand home and promised to come back to meet her but

4. never returned. Just like Aishwirya even she was beaten up by the remand home
authorities and so the same lady helped Rani also with Aishwirya in escaping the
remand home. Later, Rani insisted me to listen to a story about a fairy which she proudly
said she knew by heart from the beginning. She wants to become a policeman because
she wants to punish the criminals and the thieves. She very innocently told me that Jesus
punishes these people but confused about the terminologies she said in Hindi; “Yesu
unko paap deta he”. She likes going to church and also one day wants to become a Sister.
Later towards the end, she confused me by saying that the person who was beating her
was not her real father. Her real father is unknown to her. Back to her native place, she
has four sisters apart from one more who was killed by her uncle whom till now she was
calling her father. She misses her elder sister Kajal a lot. Kajal is at her native place now
and no one from her family or relatives ever come to visit her. She misses her whole
family including her mom, dad and sisters. This was one girl who was not tired
narrating her life story to me. She spoke to me for approximately 45 minutes. At the end,
her career choices changed and now she wanted to become a doctor. But as I was
running out of time, I had to wind up my interviews and leave these innocent ones.
Interview with Sister Geraldine
Brief:
She has been here since 2000 and in the year 2007, was transferred to the position of the
Superior General. She has been responsible for the renovation of the House, the chapel and the
Little Flower Nursery; the starting point of Divya Prabha. While she was working with the
Nursery (a small settlement for the girls in one of the residential societies at Thane, they had to
shift the girls due to increasing societal pressures and thus the present Divya Prabha came into
existence.), she had an Assistant and a peon to assist her in the work. She has finished 44 years
of serving the society and the Church as a member of the congregation.
AN unforgettable time:
The 2005 deluge (floods) proved disastrous for her. At that time, Sister Juliet was working with
her. Sister Juliet was with the girls trying to handle the situation as water gushed into the House
in full force whereas Sister Geraldine was at the Sister’s convent in the society trying to push
water outside the convent. In such precarious conditions, they were stuck for 22 days but
thankfully, the food, water and other needs were taken care of by different people who poured
out help.
Challenges:
• Their first challenge came when the society people tried to pressurize and therefore
they had to search for a separate accommodation for the children. They used to roam
around the city at night in search of a place. Finally they found a place far away at
Savalkar Nagar.

5. • The place was very far and thus it was dangerous to leave the kids alone while going or
coming back from school. Two candidates at that time helped the Sister in bringing and
leaving the kids to school.
• Two girls had run away at a point of time but they were later found by the cops who
brought them back to the House.
Pastoral activities of the Sisters
Sister Geraldine: She is involved in the activities of Our Lady of Mercy Church, Pokhran. She
is involved in the monthly youth activities as well as is the in charge of the ‘Art and Decor
Department’ of the Church. She teaches Sunday School to the KG, 1st
and 2nd
standard students.
Sister Devditta: She takes confirmation classes in Hindi for the Hindi speaking Catholics.
Conclusion
One thing which I observed is that the children are self sufficient and have no kind of greed for
anything. They love watching T.V. and they would curse you if you happen to go and meet them
while their T.V. time is going on. Compared to their Vasai counterparts, they are very calm and
composed and are in the process of discovering themselves. Most of them are from broken
families and are not actual street children.
To wind up my report and my experience, I would just say I had a wonderful and insightful time
with these young people.

6. • The place was very far and thus it was dangerous to leave the kids alone while going or
coming back from school. Two candidates at that time helped the Sister in bringing and
leaving the kids to school.
• Two girls had run away at a point of time but they were later found by the cops who
brought them back to the House.
Pastoral activities of the Sisters
Sister Geraldine: She is involved in the activities of Our Lady of Mercy Church, Pokhran. She
is involved in the monthly youth activities as well as is the in charge of the ‘Art and Decor
Department’ of the Church. She teaches Sunday School to the KG, 1st
and 2nd
standard students.
Sister Devditta: She takes confirmation classes in Hindi for the Hindi speaking Catholics.
Conclusion
One thing which I observed is that the children are self sufficient and have no kind of greed for
anything. They love watching T.V. and they would curse you if you happen to go and meet them
while their T.V. time is going on. Compared to their Vasai counterparts, they are very calm and
composed and are in the process of discovering themselves. Most of them are from broken
families and are not actual street children.
To wind up my report and my experience, I would just say I had a wonderful and insightful time
with these young people.