Just cause rewarded, courtesy Aamir Khan

The telephone in the office of Ahmednagar-based NGO Snehalaya has been ringing incessantly since last week.

Its website crashed for two days due to increased number of visitors and to top it all, it has received a donation of Rs64 lakh within a week to carry forward its work against female foeticide. All this happened as Aamir Khan had appealed people to raise funds in his television show Satyamev Jayate.

Snehalaya’s struggle for the cause of girl child and its struggle to eradicate female foeticide got wings with the help flowing in from all over the country post the show.

Aamir Khan handed over the cheque of Rs64 lakh to founder Girish Kulkarni in Mumbai on Friday.

The production team of Satyamev Jayate had visited the NGO two months ago. After seeing the work and speaking to the beneficiaries, they wanted to make a short film on the work of Snehalaya, which was one of the two NGOs in the country, selected by the team to appeal for help from the audience in the first episode on May 6.

Girish Kulkarni told DNA, “Till May 5, we had no idea what the programme was all about. It came as a surprise when the team called up and told us that Aamir Khan will ask people to help Snehalaya and that the appeal will also be put up on their website.”

Snehalaya has been working for the rescue and rehabilitation of women and children since for the last two decades.

It has been instrumental in curbing female foeticide in Shrigonda and Rahata talukas of Ahmednagar which are among the most affected places.

Intensive tours and awareness programmes were held by Snehalaya in these talukas. It also introduced Jeev Raksha Puraskar for people who informed them about attempts of female foeticide and helped to save a girl child.

They have placed cradles at various places in the district so that people who do not want girl child can leave them in these cradles.
Snehalaya, along with the civic body, takes care of the girls.

Women who were harassed for giving birth to a girl are rehabilitated by Snehalaya, which also takes care of the education of the child. 24X7 helpline is run for the purpose.

“We have got more than 3,000 e-mails offering help. More than 4 lakh people have visited our website in last week,” said Ambadas Chavan, assistant director of Snehalaya.