​Social Worker Par Excellence

Stephen Vidyaakar , on completion of his social work course , chose working with the "wretched on the streets" to borrow from the title of Frantz Fanon's book "The Wretched of the Earth", while his contemporaries were craving for high paying corporate assignments.

A dehydrated ,tiny,wailing baby boy was taken to Stephen by a rickshaw-puller ,who found it abandoned in a cinema hall after the late night show. Stephen received the baby with open arms. That marked the beginning of a long journey with the founding of Uthavum Karangal (Helping Hands) by him in 1983 to look after hundreds of human beings thrown in the streets : new born babies, children ,differently abled,sexually abused women, mentally challengd, aged men and women, patients with HIV and other ailments ,dying destitutes,and others who are not wanted by families. With shortage of funds, Stephen used to stand on the Marina Beach with a collection box "seeking alms" to raise funds for caring for the human lives awaiting succour from his organization. No social worker in India has gone to that extent for a cause close to his heart. He never bothered about the controversial social work theories on development versus charity. Human beings of all age groups needed help and he extended that unhesitatingly ignoring personal happiness. Stephen remains unmarried, but he has a very large extended family of different generations and many children for whom Vidyaakar is the surname.It is heartwarming to see Stephen ,whom the children call appaa (father) , performing Kanyadanam of his daughters ,whom he brought up from infancy, in the traditional Hindu style with all Brahminical rituals.
​
Stephen Vidyaakar's services can be compared with those of Mother Teresa. But the Mother enjoyed global support and patronage of the State and central governments.She had a big order of Missionaries of Charity spread across the globe to be part of her work. Stephen ,in comparison, is restricted in many ways in carrying out his mission.His work is unblemished with no controversy unlike the ones the critics raised with regard to the Missionaries of Charity. Awards went in search of Mother Teresa including the Nobel Prize and Bharat Ratna. But Stephen Vidyaakar still is not favoured by the Indian state . A very distressing fact.Uthavum Karangal

T.K. Nair