.
MUMBAI, India / Harmony - Celebrate Age / In Focus / April 2009 edition
Ranjit Singh
WELCOME HOME
Pingalwara Charitable Society is a beacon that lights the way
for the destitute, including countless silvers, reports Vandana Shukla
FOUNDED in 1948, the story of the establishment of Pingalwara Charitable Society in Amritsar reads like folklore. In 1934, Bhagat Puran Singh, popularly known as Babaji, found a spastic child abandoned on the stairs of Gurdwara Dera Sahib, Lahore. He took it as a message from God and found his vocation in caring for the defenseless child, who he named Piara. Over the years, 22 destitute and disabled children found a new life in his care.
After Partition
(of undivided India into India and Pakistan, 1947), Babaji travelled to Amritsar. The trauma following Partition instilled in him a resolve to seek a long-lasting solution for the abandoned and the destitute. He had no home to call his own, lived in penury, and fed and nursed others without caring for himself. Without any source of income, he continued to take responsibility for those who had not one to turn to.
When his family swelled beyond a couple of hundred, he decided to lay the foundation of Pingalwara Society. (Pingalwara means home for the mentally ill.) Alone in this mission, he would wake up early in the morning, clean the utensils and the floor of the
gurdwara and then stand on the roadside asking for money. He would then buy food and clothes and take the sick to hospital for treatment. His dynamism and selfless devotion motivated many others and Pingalwara became a movement.
Today, the trust meets an expenditure of Rs.250,000 (about $50,000) - most of this money comes from small, individual contributions.
At the same time, Babaji started a campaign to make people sensitive to the root of the malaise. He read voraciously, wrote extensively, and taught people to keep their environment, both inner and outer, clean. Fifty years ago, he foresaw that consumerism would gnaw at our values, and that people, distanced from nature, would face alienation. He laid great emphasis upon planting trees and living a life of austerity.
"Today," 'destitute' does not mean a person without money," says Mukhtar Singh, honorary secretary and planner and architect of the Society. "For a growing number of elders, money is not a problem; their problem is alienation."
For money and property, Baldev Singh's wife and son threw him out of their home in Tanda village, Punjab. The 65-year-old came to the Mannawala home four years ago. He finds joy in gardening and loves to tend to flowering plants.
The idea of an old age home was put forth when, in 2004, Mukhtar Singh read an incident about two sisters, Satwant and Beant Kaur, who were forced to live in a garage. Beant Kaur was the first Indian woman pilot and was 89 when she, along with her younger sister Satwant, was turned out of her own property by her stepson.
Hazara Singh, 73, worked as a granthi at Guru Nanak Gurdwara in Dinga district, Gujarat. After his wife passed away, his children refused to look after him. He had seen Bhagat Puran Singh's selfless work in Lahore as a child. When he realised that all doors were closed to him, he decided to come to Pingalwara. Mannawala is his home for the past four years and, every day, he does paath (prayer) for the residents.
"That's when we decided to start a separate home for senior citizens," adds Mukhtar Singh. Today, of the total number of 1,196 residents in six different branches of the society, 109 are abandoned silvers. First established in Amritsar, the society has, over the years, set up branches in Sangrur, Goindwal, Palsora, Jalandhar and Mannawalla in Punjab.
Dr. Bibi Inderjit Kaur, president of the Trust, is a qualified doctor. She never married and found her calling in the selfless work undertaken by Baba Bhagat Puran Singh. The residents of the Mannawala home and workers at the Trust are her extended family - she knows everyone by name.
In 2005, the society established Apna Ghar, in Mannawala village, about 8 km from Amritsar. It comprises 62 apartments with attached kitchen and toilet for those who can afford to stay, and 46 with a common kitchen for poor silvers. "We plan to expand the home to accommodate 200 seniors. Though Pingalwara takes only destitute seniors, at times even pensioners and retired couples want to come and stay with us," says Mukhtar Singh, adding that the society's home in Sangrur has 10 rooms with an attached kitchen and toilet for those who can afford it.
Kulwinder Singh, 51, worked as a construction engineer in South Africa. After a bitter divorce and the death of his parents, he came back to India. Around Diwali in 2007, on his way to work - the construction site of a hotel in Amritsar - he had an accident. Volunteers from Pingalwara picked him from the roadside to get him medical aid. Singh was hospitalised and looked after by volunteers from Pingalwara. After recovery, he decided to stay back in Mannawala and work as a volunteer for the construction projects of Pingalwara Trust. This is his only home now.
"Just as some children are abandoned by parents, some parents are abandoned by children," says Col (retd) Darshan Singh Bawa, an administrator at the Mannawala home. "both are destitute, though there is a difference. Even those seniors who can afford to pay partially for their stay do not like to pay and save all their money for their children who don't care to visit them."
Hardev Singh was working in a cloth factory when he fractured his back. He was given free treatment by Pingalwara Trust. Widowed and childless, he had nowhere to go and decided to stay back in Mannawala after he recovered.
At Pingalwara, housing, food, medicine, clothing and all expenses are borne by the Trust.
"We have our own ambulances and doctors give preference to our patients at all hospitals for the respect they have for Pingalwara," adds Bawa.
Apart from health facilities, the society has its own prosthetic centre in Mannawala where hundreds of silvers get a new lease on life.
"Many silvers who like to join our home object to the stigma attached to the name Pingalwara and often demand that we drop the name," says Dr. Bibi Inderjeet Kaur, president of the Trust.
"But we cannot lose our identity. Today our supporters spread all over the world know us by this name."
Source:
Harmony - Celebrate Age / The Magazine for Silver Citizens
April 2009 Volume 5 Issue 11
URL: www.harmonyindia.org
© 2009 Dhirubhai Ambani Memorial Trust
Ranjit Singh
WELCOME HOME
Pingalwara Charitable Society is a beacon that lights the way
for the destitute, including countless silvers, reports Vandana Shukla
FOUNDED in 1948, the story of the establishment of Pingalwara Charitable Society in Amritsar reads like folklore. In 1934, Bhagat Puran Singh, popularly known as Babaji, found a spastic child abandoned on the stairs of Gurdwara Dera Sahib, Lahore. He took it as a message from God and found his vocation in caring for the defenseless child, who he named Piara. Over the years, 22 destitute and disabled children found a new life in his care.
After Partition (of undivided India into India and Pakistan, 1947), Babaji travelled to Amritsar. The trauma following Partition instilled in him a resolve to seek a long-lasting solution for the abandoned and the destitute. He had no home to call his own, lived in penury, and fed and nursed others without caring for himself. Without any source of income, he continued to take responsibility for those who had not one to turn to.
When his family swelled beyond a couple of hundred, he decided to lay the foundation of Pingalwara Society. (Pingalwara means home for the mentally ill.) Alone in this mission, he would wake up early in the morning, clean the utensils and the floor of the gurdwara and then stand on the roadside asking for money. He would then buy food and clothes and take the sick to hospital for treatment. His dynamism and selfless devotion motivated many others and Pingalwara became a movement.
Today, the trust meets an expenditure of Rs.250,000 (about $50,000) - most of this money comes from small, individual contributions.
At the same time, Babaji started a campaign to make people sensitive to the root of the malaise. He read voraciously, wrote extensively, and taught people to keep their environment, both inner and outer, clean. Fifty years ago, he foresaw that consumerism would gnaw at our values, and that people, distanced from nature, would face alienation. He laid great emphasis upon planting trees and living a life of austerity.
"Today," 'destitute' does not mean a person without money," says Mukhtar Singh, honorary secretary and planner and architect of the Society. "For a growing number of elders, money is not a problem; their problem is alienation."
For money and property, Baldev Singh's wife and son threw him out of their home in Tanda village, Punjab. The 65-year-old came to the Mannawala home four years ago. He finds joy in gardening and loves to tend to flowering plants.
The idea of an old age home was put forth when, in 2004, Mukhtar Singh read an incident about two sisters, Satwant and Beant Kaur, who were forced to live in a garage. Beant Kaur was the first Indian woman pilot and was 89 when she, along with her younger sister Satwant, was turned out of her own property by her stepson.
Hazara Singh, 73, worked as a granthi at Guru Nanak Gurdwara in Dinga district, Gujarat. After his wife passed away, his children refused to look after him. He had seen Bhagat Puran Singh's selfless work in Lahore as a child. When he realised that all doors were closed to him, he decided to come to Pingalwara. Mannawala is his home for the past four years and, every day, he does paath (prayer) for the residents.
"That's when we decided to start a separate home for senior citizens," adds Mukhtar Singh. Today, of the total number of 1,196 residents in six different branches of the society, 109 are abandoned silvers. First established in Amritsar, the society has, over the years, set up branches in Sangrur, Goindwal, Palsora, Jalandhar and Mannawalla in Punjab.
Dr. Bibi Inderjit Kaur, president of the Trust, is a qualified doctor. She never married and found her calling in the selfless work undertaken by Baba Bhagat Puran Singh. The residents of the Mannawala home and workers at the Trust are her extended family - she knows everyone by name.
In 2005, the society established Apna Ghar, in Mannawala village, about 8 km from Amritsar. It comprises 62 apartments with attached kitchen and toilet for those who can afford to stay, and 46 with a common kitchen for poor silvers. "We plan to expand the home to accommodate 200 seniors. Though Pingalwara takes only destitute seniors, at times even pensioners and retired couples want to come and stay with us," says Mukhtar Singh, adding that the society's home in Sangrur has 10 rooms with an attached kitchen and toilet for those who can afford it.
Kulwinder Singh, 51, worked as a construction engineer in South Africa. After a bitter divorce and the death of his parents, he came back to India. Around Diwali in 2007, on his way to work - the construction site of a hotel in Amritsar - he had an accident. Volunteers from Pingalwara picked him from the roadside to get him medical aid. Singh was hospitalised and looked after by volunteers from Pingalwara. After recovery, he decided to stay back in Mannawala and work as a volunteer for the construction projects of Pingalwara Trust. This is his only home now.
"Just as some children are abandoned by parents, some parents are abandoned by children," says Col (retd) Darshan Singh Bawa, an administrator at the Mannawala home. "both are destitute, though there is a difference. Even those seniors who can afford to pay partially for their stay do not like to pay and save all their money for their children who don't care to visit them."
Hardev Singh was working in a cloth factory when he fractured his back. He was given free treatment by Pingalwara Trust. Widowed and childless, he had nowhere to go and decided to stay back in Mannawala after he recovered.
At Pingalwara, housing, food, medicine, clothing and all expenses are borne by the Trust.
"We have our own ambulances and doctors give preference to our patients at all hospitals for the respect they have for Pingalwara," adds Bawa.
Apart from health facilities, the society has its own prosthetic centre in Mannawala where hundreds of silvers get a new lease on life.
"Many silvers who like to join our home object to the stigma attached to the name Pingalwara and often demand that we drop the name," says Dr. Bibi Inderjeet Kaur, president of the Trust.
"But we cannot lose our identity. Today our supporters spread all over the world know us by this name."
Source:
Harmony - Celebrate Age / The Magazine for Silver Citizens
April 2009 Volume 5 Issue 11
URL: www.harmonyindia.org
© 2009 Dhirubhai Ambani Memorial Trust
