He left the U.S. to educate Indian girls

While Indian Americans have the highest average income of all ethnic groups in the U.S., why in India does one in four live in abject poverty? American-Indian Virendra ‘Sam’ Singh was obsessed with this question. He then realised that it was due to women subjugation.

Singh was born as one of eight children in a zamindar’s family in Anupshahr, western Uttar Pradesh in 1939. He was the first one in his family to become a graduate. He was also the first in the area to go abroad to study and make a living. Completing his Master’s in the U.S., Singh joined DuPont in Lowell and worked there for 35 years, leading the company’s Asia operations. He raised two daughters.

The patriarchal Anupshahr abounded in female infanticide, female illiteracy, child marriage, rape and ill-treatment of women by their husbands. Singh realised that many poor families in India can’t afford basic schooling, parents also don’t want to invest in girls since they will go away to their in-laws and the village government schools are not up to the mark. He thought, “Financial dependence breeds social dependence.”

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