Mother to the abandoned

Arunachal Pradesh

- Prasanta Mazumdar

ESAI LINGGI, a 47-year-old woman from Roing in Arunachal Pradesh, has become a beacon of hope for abandoned and destitute children. Over the years, she has dedicated her life to caring for them, earning recognition from government agencies, public sector undertakings, NGOs and the local community. From tending kids as a nursemaid, she now runs five institutions, a hostel, a school, a children's home, a one-stop centre and an adoption agency, under the banner of the Nani Maria Society. Linggi's empathy for abandoned children stems from her own difficult past.

Born into a broken family, she never experienced a stable home. Her parents separated three months before her birth, and by the time she was six, her father took her away, leading to a custody dispute. "I was given a choice to stay with either my mother or father. I chose my father, knowing my mother's financial struggles," she recalls.

But life with her father was not easy either. He remarried twice and she grew up in an emotionally fragmented household.