Jeanne Devos
Jeanne Devos,
Belgian religious sister and missionary who has spent her adult life serving the neediest people in India. She founded the National Domestic Workers Movement to advocate for one of the most powerless segments of society. For her work, she has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize
.
Life
Devos was born in 1935 in
enclosed religious order.[1]
As a teenager, Devos became introduced to the writings of
Bombay, India.[2]
In 1966 Sr. Jeanne founded a student’s movement (YCS/YSM) with the aim of linking students to the underprivileged.
http://www.ycsysmindia.com/
Domestic workers
In 1978 a survey was conducted by the
Catholic Bishops Conference of India on the actual working conditions of domestic servants in India. The survey depicted slave-like conditions for domestic workers all across the nation. As a result, in 1980 Devos began to work with women and girls in the Dindigul district of the State of Tamil Nadu. She helped to organize small groups of domestic workers to help them in whatever way she could. She became upset about the situation of these workers and the general attitude held by both employers and society in general held towards them. They had no voice and had no means to stand up for their rights. They were invisible. She saw how women from the poorest segments of the population slaved as domestic servants, usually with illegally low wages and no rights.[3]
Devos gained a new sense of urgency "after meeting the 13-year-old girl Sangeeta who was raped, pregnant and had aborted – without understanding what had happened to her." To combat this situation, in 1985 she founded the Domestic Workers National Movement, based in Mumbai, which organizes and advocates for women and girls. It now operates in 18 states of the nation, working in 28 different languages.[2] Devos participated with the CosmoGolem project, founded in 2010 by Koen Vanmechelen, which sponsors wooden statues of the Golem travel the world as a symbol of universal children’s rights.[4]
Honors
- In 2000 Devos was granted an Catholic University of Leuven.
- In 2005 she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.[2]
- In 2009 she was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown by King Albert II of Belgium.
- In 2012 the Ramkrishna Bajaj Memorial Global Award was given to her by the Priyadarshni Academy, a non-governmental organization engaged in social, educational and cultural pursuits.[5]
References
- ^ "The Apostolic Annunciades". Sisters of the Annunciation of Heverlee.
- ^ a b c "Jeanne Devos". PeaceWomen across the Globe.
- ^ "About Us: Pre-1985". National Domestic Workers Movement. Archived from the original on 2014-05-02.
- ^ "The 'Golem' ... Hope, to all children". Zuster Jeanne Devos voor kinderrechten.
- ^ "Priadarshni Awards to be conferred on global Achievers". Priyadarshni Awards. 18 September 2012.
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