Ahmedabad: From losing her sight at the age of seven to receiving the fourth highest civilian award, the journey of this woman from Gujarat is inspiring and momentous.
Muktaben Pankajkumar Dagli who hails from Nana Ankadia village near Amreli in Gujarat has been working for blind and handicapped people for the past two decades.
This Padma Shri Awardee has given blind girls a bright future In 1995, Dagli, along with her husband founded the Pragnachakshu Mahila Seva Kunj (PMSK), a non-profit organisation that provides education, food, and accommodation to blind girls.
The organisation has four branches in different cities providing facilities like beauty parlour, computer lab, cooking class and training for sewing.
Muktaben’s organisation bears all the cost of boarding, lodging, clothing, education and medical care of the residents while imparting them with cultural values and discipline.
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For those who wish to get married, the organisation helps them to find suitable partners after doing a thorough background check. Dagli bears all the wedding expenses if the bride’s parents are not financially stable.
Moreover, the organisation publishes its own monthly magazine titled ‘Vruksha’ (Tree) and another magazine titled ‘Didi’, in Braille.
The establishment not only welcomes followers of all religions but also adopts abandoned infant blind girls.
The 58-year-old who decided not to have a child of her own has helped in building the future of these blind women and girls. In addition to that, she is also taking care of 30 people with disabilities and 25 elderly people who were abandoned by their families.
Recipient of over 50 awards including Gandhi Mitra award and Mata Jijabai Stree Shakti Puraskar, Dagli became a guardian to many who had no one to call their own.
