Grandmothers who raise generations, an hour of celebration on grandparents’ day
Telegraph | 30 November 2025
Sixty-three-year-old Rashmoni Mondal managed to steal a rare hour from her workday to visit her granddaughter’s school. She earns a living by picking up waste from the roadside and separating the recyclable scraps she can sell.
Earlier this week, Rashmoni and many other grandmothers — most of them ragpickers from around Southern Avenue — were invited to a Grandparents’ Day celebration at a centre run by an NGO. They arrived one by one, some with their bags of rags still tucked at their waists. Setting the bags aside, they washed their hands and settled in for some love and entertainment.
For these women, moments like this are almost unheard of. Most have raised their children single-handedly while battling financial hardship and social ostracisation. Now, some are raising their granddaughters the same way.
“They live on the streets and have managed to raise their children — daughters and sons — protecting them from adversities and predators. Some of them are now raising their granddaughters,” said Mitrobinda Ghosh of the Tollygunge Ramdhanu Social Welfare Society. “The sacrifice they have made is immense, and we wanted the children to sit by their side and show them some love and affection.”
The society provides education to girls aged 5 to 18 who live on the streets, training them in dance, music and painting.
But programmes like these cannot soften the harsh realities these grandmothers face. While Grandparents’ Day has become an annual event in many private schools — where children perform and grandparents arrive in their finest clothes — such celebrations are a luxury the women living by the roadside cannot afford.
“It’s a struggle for existence for them, which does not allow them to take a complete day off from work. They came in between work, carrying with them the burden of the rags,” said Ghosh.
Age has not granted them rest. Old and often frail, they must compete with younger ragpickers who can gather more waste and earn more. Poverty leaves no room for retirement.
One woman, well past 70, still wakes up at 6am to begin her day’s work. Her daughter-in-law left soon after the birth of her granddaughter, and her son takes no responsibility. “It is this old woman who is bringing up the girl, who is now 13,” Ghosh said.
The grandmother had one plea for Ghosh: “Take care of my granddaughter when I am not there.”
Ghosh said she has faced resistance in her efforts to include the most marginalised Calcuttans in education but has also found allies. “Whenever I have faced resistance in the neighbourhood, there has always been a woman who speaks up for the education of girl children and for these girls,” she said.