Daya Bai

Daya Bai (born Mercy Mathew) is an Indian social activist from Kerala, working among the tribals of central India. She lives in Barul village of Chhindwara district in Madhya Pradesh.

Daya Bai
Born
Mercy Mathew
NationalityIndian
Alma materUniversity of Mumbai
(Master of Social Work)
Occupations
  • Social worker
  • Activist
Known forTribal upliftment

Early life

Mercy Mathew hails from a prosperous Christian family in Pala, Kerala.[1] She had a happy childhood with a strong faith in God.[2]

Social work

She left Pala, Kerala at the age of 16 to become a nun,[3] and later gave up her habit, to work for the tribal population in the midlands of India. She has been delivering inspirational speeches, holding satyagrahas and campaigns to press local authorities to open schools and empower neglected villages in the interior and tribal Madhya Pradesh. She was associated with Narmada Bachao Andolan and the Chengara struggle, apart from her solo struggles representing the forest dwellers and villagers in Bihar, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and West Bengal. She also lent her services to the common folk in Bangladesh during the war there. Daya Bai, who practises the theology of liberation, settled down among the Gonds of Chhindwara district in Madhya Pradesh. She set up a school in the Barul village. Daya Bai teaches each village she visits how to take care of itself and then moves on to the next village.[4]

She started the Swayam Sahayatha Group in the late 90s, as a tool for the eradication of poverty. This earned her the wrath of the middlemen, the money lenders and village chief. She asked female officers in the bank to use their position for the uplift of the downtrodden and the distressed poor.[5]

Awards

Daya Bai received the Vanitha Woman of the Year Award in 2007. She was awarded with the Good Samaritan National Award (instituted by the Kottayam Social Service Society and Agape Movement, Chicago) in January 2012.[6]

Legacy

Ottayal or 'One Person,' is an hour-long documentary on Daya Bai by Shiny Jacob Benjamin.[4] Nandita Das, the film personality, wrote a tribute to her in 2005, as the one inspiration of her life.[7]

Films

She did lead role in the 2018 Indian Malayalam-language film Kanthan – The Lover of Colour.

References
  1. Suneetha, B. (26 November 2010). "Face of compassion". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 26 February 2021.
  2. "daya bai,lady of fire". Archived from the original on 9 September 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  3. "Policies of Church contrary to Christ". Archived from the original on 25 June 2018. Retrieved 19 April 2012.
  4. Face of compassion
  5. "One-woman army drives financial inclusion in rural Madhya Pradesh". Vinson Kurian. The Hindu. 31 January 2012.
  6. Good Samaritan National Award presented to Dayabai
  7. "Mercy Mathew". Archived from the original on 22 March 2018. Retrieved 19 April 2012.

Further reading
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