A professional educator, philanthropist and young mother, Rachna Rathore welcomed the year of 2015 with an epiphany that would forever alter the destinies of one thousand Rajput women, Rathore included. For all the years that she had glimpsed into the lives of professional, working Rajput women, Rathore very correctly inferred the lack of a common platform that would unify all these women together. The scattered format of the existing network structure largely accounted for the marginal impact that it had on the lives of its participants.
In order to bridge the divide between this loose network of women, Rathore formulated an establishment known as the Rajput Mother Foundation, popularly known as RAMG.
At first, RAMG constituted a small group on Facebook that facilitated the coming together of Rajput ladies from different walks of life in order to support one another in their various professional pursuits and endeavours. Rathore’s concept seemed to be the need of the hour, which explains its exponential growth into a ten thousand member-large organisation in the short span of two years.
Rathore mentions the outreach of RAMG to have spread to almost 12 local chapters in India as well as international chapters in countries such as Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, as well as in South East Asia. In her own words, “today, RAMG has become a volunteer-driven non-profit organisation dedicated to women and young girls. Working with the women of the community, offering them opportunities through education, community help programs, advocacy and talent campaigns. The Foundation exists to promote the full and equal participation of women and girls in all aspects of the society wherein they motivate and support their fellow members to drive a measurable change towards the future.”
A significant step taken by RAMG to promote creative entrepreneurship has been the ART 10 program, a prestigious event that recognises several artists and painters in the community. The pilot season of ART 10 took off in Jaipur, under the gracious patronage of Rajmata Sahiba Padmini Devi ji as its chief guest. Apart from being a highly successful event, it also helped two artists, namely, Himantika Kumari and Devyani Rathore to gain access to a showcase of their work at Harvard University later that year.
Following this in 2018, RAMG organised a cultural event called Maruni in Jodhpur, which was presided over by Maharani Sahiba Hemlata Raje. Maruni was a first of its kind event in Jodhpur, in that it served as a liberating platform for women to exhibit their creative talent and innovative ideas towards positive social change. Collections from this event were donated for the education of underprivileged Rajput girls.
While ART 10 and Maruni highlight only two our of RAMG’s twelve national chapters and counting, Rathore emphasises on a significant amount of energy that is being put in by the organisation in order to ensure the creation of tailor-made programs that cater to the specific profile and requirements of each one of its chapters. The overarching motives of RAMG have evolved into the use of broad-based educational and talent campaigns that help in increasing local access to education and developmental resources. RAMG’s chapters in Mumbai. Delhi and Gujarat have been running successful educational programs for the girl child.
Rathore also reports the outstanding success of educational medical camps devised by RMG in some remote villages of Rajasthan and Gujarat. She finds it reassuring to receive positive responses from the rural communities that participated in these camps and looks forward to expanding such initiatives in other parts of the country as well.
Before concluding, Rathore mentions the democratic and community-centric values of RAMG that enable it to function as an egalitarian organisation that promotes women’s leadership as well as the maximisation of female agency in every regard that it has been able to procedurally explore thus far.
Rajputana Collective is honoured to associate with Rachna Rathore and RAMG, and wishes it tremendous success.
In order to become a member of RAMG, kindly visit http://rajputmothersfoundation.org/ or write to info@rajputmothersfoundation.org. RAMG is open to women of all ages and has expanded to RAMG girls as well, which is its youth wing for its younger members. On behalf of Rachna Rathore, Rajputana Collective invites every Rajput girl and woman reading this feature to join this unifying cause.
Engage.
Empower.
Emancipate.