Shakuntala is the Founder-Director of an NGO which is working in the field of Women Empowerment. She feels that social service is not a field meant for monetary gains but for satisfying one’s inner conscience.

Shakuntala Pamecha is the Founder-Director of Rajsamand Jan Vikas Sansthan and works in the field of Women Empowerment and Development.

Shakuntala was born in Gujarat. However, she was adopted by her ‘Maasi’ and shifted to Alwar. She did her B.A. in Philosophy and topped her college. Shakuntala then did her masters from Rajasthan University, Jaipur in the same field.

Shakuntala shares that after getting married in 1977, she shifted to Rajsamand with her husband who was working in J.K Tyres. She always had a zeal to do something and not sit idle. She came to know about a job vacancy in a NGO that was looking for educated women to work in association with the government. She had no experience of working in an NGO but filled out the form. It was after this that Shakuntala got real experience in social work. She traveled to remote villages, sometimes on a local bus and other times on foot. She met young girls who were married at an early age and even had kids. The deplorable condition of women that she saw moved her and she decided to do something for these women.

In 1955, Shakuntala was working as a Resource Person in Mahila Vikas Adhikaran. This gave her an experience of working with women and understanding their problems. In 1998, she started ‘Rajsamand Mahila Manch’ which provided a platform to women from rural areas to discuss their problems and to find a collective solution. It was a one-of-a-kind platform in Rajsamand and saw a great acceptance from women. Soon, they had a membership of 9000 women. At this moment, Shakuntala felt the need for funds and a bigger platform. To meet this requirement, in 2003, she started ‘Rajsamand Jan Vikas Sanstha’ and started working on issues of violence, child marriages, and others.

Shakuntala shares that she started receiving cases in thousands where women had been physically tortured, young girls being married, land matters, and many more. She started reaching out to lawyers and people from the administration to train such women about their rights and the ways they could bring their life back on track. Shakuntala says that they also started doing rallies and dharnas to bring their issues to the notice of the government. They also created a ‘Nari Adalat’ as for many women hiring a lawyer and spending ample amounts of money was not possible. They started getting cases from places like Bhilwara and Ahmedabad as well. Shakuntala says that she also helped women get jobs as Asha Sahyogini, Anganwadi workers and some of them have even become Sarpanch.

Shakuntala shares that her aunt was a freedom fighter and the ‘Chameli Devi Puraskar’ is given in her honor. She shares that her aunt was the first in her family to discard the ‘Ghunghat’ and set an example. She feels that helping the needy and doing something for the nation has always been there in her blood.

Shakuntala says that during Covid she got time to stay at home and do her pending writing work. She is documenting achievements of her life and worked on the same in the lockdown. They also created a group of doctors, nurses, and social workers to help people get beds and other Covid essentials on time. They also opened an isolation center of 10 beds and hired nurses. They are also creating awareness regarding vaccines. Shakuntala says that they distributed Covid Kits to 1500 women and Sanitary Pads to 600 Girls.

Talking about her struggles, Shakuntala says that her in-laws used to force her for dowry and troubled her with excessive work. However, she never bowed to their demands and fought for her respect.

Shakuntala has received many awards for her work. In 2000, she received one from the District Collector on Independence Day. The state government awarded her in 2016 for her work in the field of child marriage. One girl from her organization, Yashoda Gameti, annulled her child marriage and was rewarded with a sum of 25 thousand rupees from the state. She was also made a minister for a day.

Shakuntala says that her biggest achievement was receiving a piece of land from the collector for her women’s training center. She got FCRA approvals and investment from the Japan Embassy for the same. Today, a training center is successfully running there.

Shakuntala feels that to come into this field, a pure heart is required more than skills. She feels that no one should come into this field with an aspiration of financial gains. They should come to this field to help the needy and to invest their time in bringing a change in this world.

Shakuntala says that Education is very necessary for life. Along with it, technical knowledge is also very important as everything in today’s time is moving online.

Shakuntala says that she seldom gets any free time but whenever she does, she tries to plan trips with her family. She likes traveling to new places and exploring new destinations and cultures.