67 year old woman is running barefoot to raise funds for her family

A resident of Baramati, the 67-year-old participated in the Sharad Marathon for the third successive year on Sunday. Like the previous two occasions, she won the first prize of Rs 5,000, in the senior citizen category, this time as well.

This was the second time she was running to raise funds to build a home. "Last time too, I tried but we could not raise much," said Kare, whose first marathon was to raise money to cure her husband's ailment.

"That time, his head used to spin and he used to have heart pain. That is now under control but he still requires medicines," said Kare.

This time, she hopes to have better luck as more people know why she is running. She needs Rs 2 lakh to build a home and she hopes help will be more generous this time.

Kare lives with her husband, son, daughter-in-law and grandchild. "This time, we are hopeful," said Kare, who ran the 2.5 km barefoot.

Barefoot running is her idea of putting behind the fear of tripping. "I remove chappals and run," said Kare, who runs without any practice.

Working in a farm, the family lives in a rented place. Her husband who works as a security guard does his bit and so does her son, who does odd jobs. Her daughter-in-law is a homemaker.

The family, originally from Buldhana district, shifted to Baramati as they did not get any below-poverty-line benefits. Moving to another district has also proved to be a stumbling block in getting any benefit.

"My wife won laurels for winning the race barefoot. She is now tired and we have asked the organisers for help," said Bhagwan Kare, her husband.

"She had met Ajit Pawar and Supriya Sule. Since the family is not from Baramati, they can't avail any benefit from government schemes like Indira Awas Yojana. Rules don't respect them as beneficiaries. Hence, we are now trying to to help them socially," said Sachin Satav, organiser of Sharad Marathon in Baramati.

Source- DNA