Healing By Helping People In The Hills

After a series of personal losses, a young woman is now on a mission to provide better health and education for people in her state, writes Vineet Upadhyay

- Vineet Upadhyay

UTTARA KHAND

BORN in a family of freedom fighters, activists, and bureaucrats, Shveta Mashiwal (37 ) has an ambition to see her home state Uttarakhand on top in the parameters of health, education and basic facilities.

After losing her brother in an accident in 2011 and then her mother to cancer in 2018, she went through a phase of depression but reverted to her true self. “The sense of loss can be overwhelming. But then those who left me would never want me to live in perpetual grief. Both Bhaiya and Maa were great visionaries from whom I draw inspiration. I decided to contribute and give back as much as I can to the society like my family has done always,” says Shveta.

Hers was a rare family which practiced ‘sada vrat’ – when food is provided to the needy on a permanent basis and a ‘langar’ is always on, she said.

Ranging from organising health camps to arranging food, medicines, to filing multiple PILs on health and education infrastructure and rampant drug abuse, Shveta does everything along with managing her personal life that shuttles between Mumbai and Ramnagar in Nainital district.

She founded the self-funded ‘Vatsal Foundation’ in December 2011 in memory of her brother Sudeep Mashiwal to realise his dreams of providing better health and education facilities to the people of the hill state, especially in rural and remote areas.

A graduate in history, she also holds a degree in media management. Shveta has also worked as an RJ in a reputed radio channel. She was also a TV commercial filmmaker and a producer of many automobile adverts. However, her life changed forever after a phone call on February 26, 2011.

INSPIRATION