Good Samaritan donates money, sewing machine after HT story

Hindustan Times reader Suresh Maniar, 82, a resident of Babulnath Road, donated a hand sewing machine to NGO LEARN’s (Labour Education and Research Network), women home-based workers union, called the LEARN Mahila Kamgar Sangathana, after reading A woman’s work... an article on home-based women workers in the slums of the city and the NGO’s efforts to unionise them.

Hindustan Times reader Suresh Maniar, 82, a resident of Babulnath Road, donated a hand sewing machine to NGO LEARN’s (Labour Education and Research Network), women home-based workers union, called the LEARN Mahila Kamgar Sangathana, after reading A woman’s work... an article on home-based women workers in the slums of the city and the NGO’s efforts to unionise them.

HT Image

Maniar will also be paying Rs500 to Manisha Kevat, 27, a single mother of two, living in Dharavi whose story was published in the article. Kevat’s husband left her for another woman five years ago to fend for herself and her two children. Kevat works in a tailoring workshop and stitches clothes for her neighbours making Rs4,000 a month of which Rs 3,000 goes towards rent. “Like Kevat’s husband, even she could have abandoned her children and remarried. Instead, she chose to work hard and take care of them. I respect her for that and thought of helping her and other women like her,” Maniar said.

Kevat who has been struggling to make ends meet for her children, 5 and 2, is grateful for the financial help. “With the Rs500 from Maniarji, I will admit my daughter to a good school,” Kevat said. She also plans to use the sewing machine to stitch more clothes and make more money.