Unlike most of the boys in his class, little Amit would find himself faltering every time a new teacher would casually inquire the students about their fathers’ names or occupations. Having lost his father at the tender age of three, Amit Jain grew up witnessing the plight of a widowed mother in Indian society. 

At the prime age of 27, Amit Jain has resolved to bring a permanent change in the lives of widows and fatherless children. Inspired by his mother’s unfailing support, he started his organisationMittiKe Rang – which is working in countries across the globe, rebuilding the lives of widowed and single women and their children.

Amit Jain shares his journey with Hello Vizag, from giving up on his engineering dreams to securing employment for many helpless women. Amit Jain is now in Visakhapatnam in course of his six months-long all-India solo tour in which he plans to cover 6,147kms. Jain arrived in the city after completing his tour of the western and southern circuits. Amit calls his journey ‘a voyage from being a corporate slave towards becoming a digital nomad’ with the objective of empowerment.

Childhood days

Hailing from the small town of Bhusawal in Maharashtra, Amit Jain hardly remembers his father except for a few golden glimpses of playing and sharing innocent laughs. In 1994, when he passed away, Amit’s grandfather helped his mother start a small tailoring shop to make ends meet. 

Me and my brother I’s education, books, clothes, and other expenses were mostly financed by my uncle. Pained by her struggles which she never expressed, Amit was determined to gift his mother a better life. He had to sacrifice his dreams of becoming an engineer mainly due to the lack of funds. Despite financial constraints, he finally landed a decent job after pursuing his graduation in Commerce.“After I settled in Pune, I brought my mother here so that she does not have to face the brunt of the heartless society again.”

The humble beginning of Mitte Ke  Rang
“In 2014, when we were living a somewhat better life, my mother urged me to do something for the society, especially for the widowed women. I learnt that presently there are over 42 million widows in India, most of whom silently suffer a lifetime of isolation?” shares Amit.

Amit did not have any prior exposure of working in the social sector, so rather than straightaway dealing with a sensitive issue, he decided to gain some experience at the ground level. “I remembered how throughout my childhood, my relatives funded our basic essentials. So I wondered how I could help other deprived families. Finally, I decided to act as a mediator – between willing donors and the NGOs who support poorer children and their families,” he shares.

 Popularising his initiative through Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms, every weekend Amit would go to different cities and collect clothes, books and other items from the donors who got in touch with him and later donate those to different NGOs.Within one and a half years, his campaign spread like a wildfire involving more than 100 active volunteers, following which he decided to address the issue of gender inequality which has always been his aim. Thus MittiKe Rang saw the light of the day in Pune.

Projects initiatives

“We are working with widowed women, organizing skill-based workshops for them like Rangoli designing, cloth and paper bag making, creating idols for the upcoming festivals, and handcrafting Diwali gifts. “It was a moment of great pride when some of these women were offered regular work by an event management company, to do Rangoli at different cultural events,” Amit says. 

The other segment of Project Widows is to make these women aware of their rights and benefits; guiding them with the necessary paperwork to avail services from banks and other government offices. “We also have occasional visits from our foreign counterparts for cultural exchange programs, who teach the women to read and write.” 

For the children who have lost their fathers, MittiKe Rang has started a community center with a library. Every evening, over 30 children in the age group of 6 to 16, are taught to read. Recently, Project Reading has integrated uneducated widows and senior citizens from low-income backgrounds. 

Centers across the world 

Amit’s application to be a member of the Commonwealth Youth Council was approved in 2017. He met with social workers from over 40 countries at their annual conference in Malaysia. His idea of gender equality and rehabilitation of widows influenced many of them, who incorporated a similar campaign model in their own countries. 

Today we have Mittie Rang centers in Pakistan, Zambia, Gambia, Kenya, France, Spain, Fiji, Nepal, and of course India, with our primary centers at Pune and Hadapsar. By the end of this year, centers at Gurgaon, Ghaziabad, and Mumbai are scheduled to start. We are changing the lives of underprivileged widows and their children all over the world, ”Amit shares proudly. 

Almost the entire funds of Mitti Ke Rang in India are borne by Amit himself, as he prefers to focus exclusively on improving lives rather than asking around for more funds. “In my journey, I have noticed that the ones who offered the best support and made the most generous contribution, were the people whom we forget to take into consideration,” Amit shares, recalling some heartwarming memories he made along the way. 

During my collection campaign, there was one auto-driver in Indore to whom I gifted my new shirt. Exchanging contact numbers, I excitedly shared my campaign with him. To my surprise, he volunteered to take me door to door for the collection drive if he was allowed to keep 20% of the items. You won’t believe what he did with that 20%. He distributed all of it among his neighbors. His own wife, kids, and mother were over the moon to get new clothes.”