Living life the gandhian way
Though untouchability was abolished in India in 1950, the country is still struggling to abandon the discriminatory & exploitative practice. Navnit Kumar, a government school teacher, is out to fulfill Gandhi’s dreams. Ramashankar reports
BIHAR : Navnit, with his 12-member team run Rashtriya Yuva Gandhi Sangh (RYGS), an organization to spread awareness about cleanliness, sanitation and upliftment of the subjugated, the main objectives of Gandhi. The organization helps the members of sanitary department of Hajipur municipality and has also honoured the staff by calling them ‘Nagar Nayaks’.
Having being on the sidelines of the society, and being discriminated against based on the kind of traditional work to clean drains and sweep roads they do, the organization helps the community by empowering them and also providing free safety kits and facilitating them with health insurance as well.
“We organise functions in the premises of temples to honour the sanitation workers with a view to end social evils like untouchability to which Gandhi had against during the British rule. In fact, scavengers and sanitary employees are the real harbingers of change in a healthy society,” the 39-year-old teacher revealed. Navnit also works on creating awareness among people on maintaining hygiene, cleanliness and sanitation not only in their homes but also their surroundings.
Bhola Mallik, a sanitary employee who was felicitated by RYGS a few years ago said, “We are happy with what the RYGS does. Such an initiative has been taken up by an organisation for the first time in the state like Bihar. More people should come forward to help the poor.”
The meetings are held on every week at RYGS office at Madai Road in Hajipur, district headquarters of Vaishali district in north Bihar. “We chalk out plans and deliberate upon strategy for its execution at our meetings on weekends,” remarked Navnit.
Navnit is currently posted as an assistant teacher at Bhadwas Kanya government primary school in Vaishali district. He was appointed as a teacher on contractual basis by the state government in 2010. Though he had been nurturing dreams to follow the Gandhian way of living since his childhood, he could move a step forward in that direction only after getting a job.
He formed a team of like-minded enthusiastic youth who contribute from their monthly income to carry on the uphill task of serving the suffering humanity and protect the environment. People like Vaibahv Sinha, a medical representative, Saurabh Kumar, a businessman and Ritu Raj, a teacher in a private school, actively participate in meetings and contribute money depending on their earnings.
Besides, it is credited with organising blood donation camps, tree plantation work as well. Recently, the organization launched a campaign to avoid use of polythene to save environment.
