Community based programme are her forte

Her reputation precedes her in every new assignment for more reasons than one. For those opposed to social welfare and the uplift of the underprivileged, she is a formidable adversary. For beneficiaries of Tata Steel’s social welfare programmes, there could be no dearer friend.

Dilith Castleton is a “woman of the soil” and it is her thirst to change the destiny of “her people” which has constantly driven her for the 20 years that she has been associated with the company. “I have seen the struggle in my life. Therefore, I always feel like I am one of them. If I could change my destiny, why not them,” she questions.

“When I joined Tata Steel in 1984, after my post graduation from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Bombay on a Tata Steel scholarship, I was assigned to the Tata Steel Rural Development Society and I worked there from 1984 to 1994. My biggest challenge was to ensure women’s participation in development.”

Taking Mrs Sumathi Muthuraman to review a welfare programme

It was not easy going for her - she spent long hours travelling village to village on barely negotiable tracks, facing the wrath of moneylenders and at the same time having to overcome the natural disinclination of women to step beyond home and hearth and once even face bows and arrows - yet she remained undeterred so much was her love for her work. Obviously the experience and the satisfaction was so great that today she ranks her involvement with the pilot projects of TSRDS as among her best achievements.

The eldest among nine siblings, Mrs Castleton was born and educated in Jamshedpur. She attended school at St Mary’s School and then DBMS before enrolling for college at the Women’s College and later Karim City College. Later she taught for six years in Loyola School.

An active participant in youth programmes since her school days, it was during this time that she met her husband Anthony Castleton, who is her “biggest source of support,” apart from her parents and her sons. Today, they are obviously very proud of her.

If Dilith Castleton is viewed as a very valuable resource person by the company and the community, then it is a lot to do with the “opportunity that the Tata Steel management gave her and the inspiration” she received from J R D Tata himself. The only others who comes close to the great visionary are Mr S A Sabavala and her first boss, Mr Daljeet Singh.

“I took Mr Tata to the villages three times. Those were great moments for me especially because they made me realise that if he had the time for my people, what about people right here like me? People do the kind of work I do voluntarily, I am being paid to do what I love.”

Mrs Dilith Castleton with her husband and sons, her source of encouragement

In 1994, she moved to Tribal Cultural Society and then in 1999 to the Centre for Family Initiatives. Every move was viewed as an opportunity and she grew with every assignment. Scholarships, fellowship and invitations to international seminars as well as training programmes now keep rolling in. These include the Canadian Cross Roader programme, the Conference on Peace, Religion and Development at Jordan, ICOMP, Malaysia, the Packard Foundation and interactions with NGOs and women activists across the world.

Her current passion is working with adolescents in the reproductive age. “Young girls of 16-17 years would earlier be mothers of three children. Yet they were not allowed to share their concerns with an expert. Their mothers or mothers-in-law would speak for them. The health of the mother and child would be very poor. She would be miserable and so would the family. First through the SAHAS and now through YARS we have brought in social marketing of products, removed myths associated with reproduction and the cycle as well as empowered the community to sustain the programme.” But at the end of the day all that makes Dilith Castleton go on is “the love I now receive from the people and the smiles on their faces.”