Education plays a primitive role in today’s world. But not all can afford to go to school to study. People from the economically backward sections of the society don’t get the luxury to study like other students. However, Meet Bhan Singh Jassi is revolutionising the lives of slum children by helping them get a quality education. Isn’t he a great soul?
The intriguing story of Bhan Singh is one that needs to be told. Generous people like Bhan Singh still exists. Bhan Singh Jassi who is a philanthropist is one such generous soul who has been extending his helping hand to those less unfortunate children for the last 15 years or so. Jassi always feels a great sense of accomplishment when he teaches the children.
He runs 6 schools for poor children with the complete assistance of 20 teachers in Sherpur, Barnala, Longewal, Sangrur, Dhuri, Patiala and Sirhind without any support from the government. Jassi also runs an NGO which is Guru Nanak Dev Charitable Slum Society which fulfils the expectations of the teachings of Guru Nanak and also helps the poor children through education.
Jassi’s organisation manages all expenses including the teachers’ payments, stationary, books and other important expenses. The beautiful venture to spread the art of teaching the poor children kick-started in 2003 in Sangrur, Jassi’s hometown. Jassi recalls the incident that happened 15 years ago where he saw little children in a poor condition unable to go to school.
“It was painful to see little children in such a pitiable condition and not going to school. So, one day I went to the slum near my house and asked the parents (mostly snake charmers and rag-pickers) to send them to school. But they refused. They told me it’s not in their destiny to go to school and like them, rag-picking was their future as well,” Jassi told The Statesman.
Understanding their situation, Jassi wanted to give the kids a bright future so that they would come through with flying colours. “As children started coming to my class in the evening, I eventually got them admitted to the nearby government school by financing all their expenses. Now the number of children at the study centre in that slum is 125.”
Day by day, the fruitful effort caught the pace. Apart from providing free tuition to about 1000 children, Jassi always stepped forward and chipped in with donations in order to meet their expenses the effort gathered speed and at present besides providing free tuition to about 1000 children, Jassi arranges finance with the help of donations to meet their real-time expenses such as school and college fees, school dress and other important expense.
The small room that was made out of bricks with a tarpaulin roof may not look like the classroom but that was more than enough to turn the pages of children. After coming to know about Jassi’s efforts to transform the lives of these poor children, many people volunteered.
Yadvinder Singh Kala, one of the volunteers said, “I heard about Jassi and his work. Then I found out about it on my own. I talked to my son in the USA and he is sending money for five years now.”
“It was difficult for slum children to clear one class in the past, but these children are doing so well in studies. I am happy that we are working in slums where people don’t enter without covering their nose. We are contributing where even the government initiatives for universal education have failed,” he said
Educating others is one of the best activities in the world. In a world where education is a necessity, sharing knowledge with others makes our lives meaningful. You don’t have to be an expert. Being good at basics is sufficient to teach others. Even the people who go after dreams teach kids in leisure time.
