Meet the 20-year-old social activist trying to create a gender equal world

Sagarika Deka from Guwahati dreams of creating an equal world. Having volunteered with organisations on gender and development issues, she realised there was a need for more youth-led initiatives in northeast India.

Her interest began after watching videos and documentaries on women’s rights, in particular, one about the rape of Rohingya women, which horrified her.

“I was introduced to the United Nations Human Rights Council by my teachers in middle school and since then, I wanted to be a part of it. However, I wasn't sure how to get started,” Sagarika, now an undergraduate student at Amity University, Noida, tells SocialStory.

She started by posting poems every time she heard about a crime, the first of which was on rape. She began posting on her social media accounts and perform at open mics. The positive response motivated her to write more and work for women's issues and empowerment.

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Getting started

“Over time, I established myself as a slam poet and used open work as a platform to speak up for women’s rights. I have always been passionate about working for women and child development,” says Sagarika.

She wrote about 17 poems about women in two years. Her poems had aggression, women’s points of view, societal views, etc.

And that is when ‘Girl Up’, a branch of the UN, invited her to lead the Assam chapter and bring women’s issues to light after recognising one of her poems. She spread the word online, and in six months, she had a team of 47 members.

Sagarika is also a part of the Ashoka Young Changemakers cohort, which includes youngsters from across the country working on pivotal issues.

Working for the cause

In December 2020, she decided to start her own venture too and thus began her journey with ‘Maan Ki Umeed’, focusing on enrolling slum kids to primary schools and organising various capacity-building programmes for them.

Based in Guwahati, it works on four pillars—empowerment, employment, education, and service.

Currently, it is working on solving various issues faced by women in society, majorly working to bring menstrual hygiene management curriculums into schools. Another is ‘Project Adoption’, which aims to enrol underprivileged children to schools and fund their primary education. Over 60 students (mainly orphans) are in this project.

“We are trying to develop underprivileged communities of our society and trying to educate underprivileged children by enrolling them in schools and funding their primary education. We are trying to empower and raise awareness about very important issues like gender equality, menstrual hygiene, body positivity, mental health, environment, etc.,” says Sagarika.

Additionally, her team is trying to get job opportunities for underprivileged women and single mothers by building small businesses and supporting activities.

For this, the team is collecting funds. “We have a set of women and girls who know to stitch and are interested in working. We are planning to give them all equipment from these funds and ask them to make bags, clothes, etc., and sell through our Instagram account. And, a part of whatever profit we will generate through this will go to them as their salary,” she says.

She adds that since most of the mothers of the kids they work with are unemployed, she plans to teach them how to make handicraft items and sell them.

Maan Ki Umeed has a team of 50+ members, including volunteers and interns, and is run by donations and funds from people and organisations.

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Campaigning for women's rights

During the Assam floods in 2020, Sagarika says that while NGOs and government bodies were offering donations—food and other essentials—but none that acknowledged how women were affected too.

She started the campaign ‘Flood doesn't stop menstruation’ and appealed to the government and NGOs to add sanitary pads to emergency kits.

What began on social media found its way to a larger crowd with many people supporting her cause. Soon, it reached small and big NGOs like Goonj that were already working with the flood victims. They started to distribute sanitary pads to affected people.

As of May 2022, the team has reached over 500 girls and women from rural and underprivileged areas, donated over 10,000 sanitary napkins during the Assam floods of 2020, and provide food ration kits to over 3,500 people during the COVID-19 pandemic covering five districts of Assam.

In 2021 and 2022, when Sagarika moved to Delhi for studies, she and her team conducted crowdfunding activities and donated the money to organisations working in areas affected by the flood and COVID-19.

Talking about the future plans, Sagarika says,

“I dream of making Maan Ki Umeed a much bigger and more successful organisation and develop its sister company very soon through which we can create jobs and give employment opportunities to underprivileged, unemployed women.”