A woman's endeavor to translate government schemes for the poor

Lucknow: The government runs numerous welfare schemes for the poor, farmers and other sections of the society but many deserving people does not get benefitted from such schemes, programs and policies. The simple reason is that people does not know about such schemes and policies thus they fail to get any benefit and the government also fails to reach all people for whom the policies are made and implemented.

Steps taken by Sumathi Bhupathi:

Some people are making relentless effort to bridge this gap and Sumathi Bhupathi is one of such crusaders. A native of Telangana, Sumathi Bhupathi has voluntarily taken the task of translating the programs and policies for the uninformed people.

Sumathi Bhupathi has been doing this for the last twenty years and she says that she had travelled far and wide all over India is this pursuit. Now settled in Vishakhapattanam, Andhra Pradesh, Sumathi runs a voluntary organization by name of Jiva International.

Shumathi Bhupathi now 52, says that since her school days she was attracted towards social work. I used to help others by teaching them or giving them important information, says Sumathi.

Her home was always bustling with people as her father Bh.Venkatanarsaiah was an MLC in Telangana. According to Sumathi, she became aware of government policies, programs, people rights and their problems quite well and the family atmosphere helped her make a choice of going full time into social work. After completing her graduation and a Diploma in Architectural engineering, she became associated with a few voluntary organizations and did field work in as many as 12 states. She worked in rural areas and spread awareness among rural folks about the government policies and programs.

Sumathi says that she gets full support from her family in her work. She says that she works in tandem with many others voluntary and non government organizations. She says that the governments, state and central, are going lot of work, spending fabulous money and running lot of programs and schemes for the down trodden, tribals, poor, farmers etc but as many people are unaware of those programs, they do not get any benefits. Sumathi laments that it also happens that programs and schemes are poorly publicized and half heartedly implemented by a few vested interests. She says that a lot of work has to be done and she herself has dedicated her life for this objective.

About her achievement and success, Sumathi says that she has achieved 70 percent success in her endeavor.

In the year 2009 Sumathi stepped into politics and joined Prajarajyam Party, besides she has been active in building alliances of dalit, adivasi, nomadic and muslim communities. She was instrumental in setting up agendas of pension for the elderly and she was also active propagator of dalit land right movement at the national level.

She is the founder of National Dalit Initiative, convener of National Dalit Forum, program officer at CWS, campaign coordinator on street children and destitute single women at SIDUR, chief campaigner on Women Rights in the districts in Andhra Pradesh, Sumathi has also extensively campaigned against sex exploitation of dalit women workers and child marriages. She mobilized many social campaigns, closely worked with government machinery in 15 states.