M A I N   N E W S

Teachers grooming destitute kids honoured
Varinder Walia
Tribune News Service

Amritsar, September 5
Teachers’ Day was celebrated in a unique way in Maqboolpura, a locality of widows, where 150 breadwinners died due to drug addiction.

A nondescript Vidya Mandir school in the ramshackle colony today received philanthropists from far-off places, including Mumbai, Sangrur and Barnala, who honoured teachers (mostly wards of drug addicts) who are themselves students. The school is being run by Citizens Forum with the help of voluntary donations. It was recently adopted by Ms Kiran Bedi’s organisation Navjyoti.

The quiet function held at Maqboolpura assumes significance as the organisers of the state-level function organised here forgot to invite anybody from Maqboolpura where there teachers are successfully running the school for the children of drug addicts.

Many men from Maqboolpura, on the outskirts of Amritsar, had left their children orphans to struggle against all odds. it was Mr Brij Bedi, president of the Citizens Forum, who initially adopted 20 orphans of drug addicts. After getting education financed by donations, these children started teaching in Vidya Mandir opened in a house donated by Master Ajit Singh, an educationist and a social worker of the same colony. However, senior students continued to pursue their higher studies.

The teachers of Vidya Mandir today got a pleasant surprise when they received a philanthropist couple from Mumbai, Mr Rajneesh Bahl and his wife, Ms Joyoti Bahl, who honoured them by giving clothes and other gifts. The 350 students also got chocolates and sweets on this occasion. Mr Bhim Shah, district manager, Khadi Board (Sangrur), and Mr Hardip Goel, an advocate and a senior Congress leader from Barnala, and Mr Subash Pehlwan specially reached here to honour the teachers.

Ms Parveen Kaur (20), who herself is student of BA (II) and had been teaching in the school for the past four years, said she was pleased to be honoured in a unique way. Two sisters, Rimpi and Veena, who have been teaching in the school for the past two years, said their father had committed suicide by jumping before a running train. They said with the cooperation of the Citizens Forum, they were able to teach and pursue their higher studies simultaneously. Abljit Kaur, Gurjit Kaur, Amandip, Manjit Kaur, Sarbjit Kaur, Sukhwant and Rajinder Kaur are among the 11 teachers who successfully continue to pursue their higher studies while teaching simultaneously.