Seeing some harsh realities made me to come into this: Shraddha Soparkar

Shraddha Soparkar is an entrepreneur and the Founder Trustee of Madhuram Charitable Trust, which is working to create a positive impact in the lives of the marginalized, specially-gifted, and physically challenged persons.

She is the mother of a special kid and has established the Madhuram Charitable Trust which works for specially-abled persons. In less than four years, the trust has made a noticeable difference in the lives of more than 800 special children by providing them with various therapies, hearing aids, and other appliances. Similarly, almost 100 individuals with lower limb amputation have been provided high-quality prosthetic legs imported from Germany.

Soparkar is a member of the Gujarat Chamber of Commerce & Industry's IPR committee and was recently appointed to the Chamber's CSR Taskforce. She is also a member of the Governing Board of GLS University and on the board of Special Olympic, Gujarat. She is the recipient of the IPRA Award for Innovation, Wonder Women Award by NavGujarat Samay, and the Times CSR Award.

In an exclusive conversation with 'The Hans India', Soparkar shares about her journey. Let's have a look into it.

Share something on your life's journey and what prompted you to start Madhuram Charitable Trust?

I am 35 years old and was born in the princely royalty of Madhya Pradesh and married to an industrial entrepreneur in Gujarat. I could have immersed herself in the happiness of profitable entrepreneurial ventures and material comforts all through her life. But I chose otherwise. I immersed myself in the service of humanity. I am a mother of two children, and one of them is a special child. I have a degree in Law, and the story behind setting up of Madhuram Charitable Trust is heart touching, which I set up in 2018 in Ahmedabad.

Shruti, my daughter, is my second child. She was born normal. This slightly premature baby had to go through four brain surgeries by the time she was four months old. I think a hospital acquired infection led to these surgical interventions coming into play. I stayed at the Birla Guest House, of the legendary Birla family, in Mumbai during Shruti's treatment. The cerebrospinal fluid, a buffer fluid between the skull and the brain, is secreted everyday in us and absorbed by the body through the spine. This normal absorption was not happening in Shruti's case because of the infection. Her head would bloat in the process. Ultimately, a shunt was fitted in Shruti to drain the cerebrospinal fluid. In the intermittent ordeal between the infection stage and the shunt, 35 percent of Shruti's left side of the brain had gotten damaged. So, the right side of her body was substantially paralysed. A normal child thus became a special child. I came back to Ahmedabad from Mumbai and we began the physiotherapy rounds for Shruti. I saw people from all economic backgrounds accompanying special care children at these therapy centres. One mother, I noticed, would bring lunch for one day and drink buttermilk for lunch the next day. I saw this pattern continue. I asked her about it. Her response was heart wrenching: Roj roj khana khayenge toh bacche ki therapy kahaa se hongi – If we continue eating a full meal everyday then how will we manage the child's therapy costs. I had never seen such harsh realities of life at such close quarters. It made me think.

I offered the mother who was having irregular meals that I will pay for her child's therapy costs. She had to have a proper lunch every day. This is how I set foot into sponsoring the therapy costs of special needs children, and have helped 800 children till date.

What were the hurdles you faced while working at the ground level for CSR activities since you belong to a Royal family?

After the initial stage, we decided to take a small contribution from the parents – a contribution of Rs. 50 per child per therapy session. We would contribute the remaining Rs. 400 towards it. The reason for this parent contribution was to create a stake in the therapies their children got. In the beginning when we were giving totally free therapy, we noticed irregularity in attendance. We would book a slot and if the child did not avail of it then that slot was going waste. Then I realized that giving the therapy totally free was a mistake. So I took course correction and began taking a tiny contribution of Rs. 50 per session from the parents. The arrangement worked well and as I told you we were able to take care of 800 special needs children in Gujarat.

Since you work towards easing the lives of specially-abled children by providing them equitable medical access and care to people with amputations. Please share with us some examples where the trust has impacted the lives of specially-gifted, and physically challenged children.

Over the next one and a half years, after my first intervention of sponsoring ten special needs children, I went on to sponsor 800 more special needs children. The results in them were encouraging. It felt wonderful seeing a mother's happiness when she saw her 16-year old child walking for the first time ever. We sponsored children in the age group of 4 months to 20 years.

What is Project Stepathon?

So far, through the Madhuram Charitable Trust and Project Stepathon we have provided the German Ottobock prosthetic leg to 107 people who have undergone leg amputation. Initially, we focussed on bread-earners in the family. Thereafter, we included women and children. The Trust provides the prosthetic leg, free of cost, to people not so fortunate with wealth and asset ownership. Most people lose a leg due to road accidents, mainly motorbike accidents. Diabetes, gangrene, infection, crossing railway tracks are some other reasons. Leg infections, due to whatever reason, also flared up during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Ottobock prosthetic leg, which is fitted on the recipients we identify, is very light – about one to one and a half kilogram. The leg is very comfortable, so comfortable that people even forget to remove it and refit it once a day, which is the advised protocol. They also end up having a bath with the leg on. I might be sounding like a brand ambassador for Ottobock but I am not. My primary goal is to provide a prosthetic leg free of cost to the poor and give them mobility, relevance, and dignity. Life without a leg is not easy for someone who has been walking and running all one's life.

You are also starting an Aqua Therapy Centre. Could you please tell us more about the same?

Aqua-therapy does wonders. The pace of enabling normalcy for special needs people is faster with aqua-therapy as compared to physiotherapy. So, we will combine both the therapies to expedite normal life in special needs children. Madhuram Charitable Trust has managed to get land from the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation in a central location in Ahmedabad city, which is easily accessible to all. We plan to build a world-class swimming pool there and offer free of cost aqua-therapy to people who face physical challenges or other special needs. The journey has begun. We want a fulfilling, happy, productive, and satisfactory life for special needs people.