A noble superannuation
Former director general of Assam Police Nishinath Changkakoti is one of the
highly esteemed citizens of Assam and has earned respect for his quality of
head and heart from all sections of people. Changkakoti, a member of IPS cadre,
served Assam for 35 years from 1957 to 1992 rising to the highest position of
the Director General of Police, Assam. He had earned the most coveted medals of
police service namely, Indian Police Medal for meritorious service in 1980 and
President’s Medal for distinguished service in 1986. Even after superannuation,
his zeal to serve society, especially the under privileged sections, has not
subsided. With a group of like-minded people, he formed an NGO - Karunadhara -
a unique non-Government registered Trust dedicating itself for promoting
overall well being of persons suffering from physical/ mental disability and
for enabling financially weak critically ill persons to avail of costly
specialised treatment. In addition to
providing required financial aid to such needy persons, Karunadhara has also
been taking up various measures to develop talent and raise social status of
physically and mentally challenged persons. During an interaction with Melange,
Changkakoti reveals the journey of Karunadhara so far and its future plans.
Q: How would you describe Karunadhara?
A: It is a noble organization for the welfare of the physically and mentally
disabled persons. You will be surprised to know that though the actual figure
is not known, there are more than nine lakh such unfortunate people in Assam.
It is very disturbing that most of such unfortunate people are from poor
families. As most of them are unable to live on their own feet, so they often
become a burden for their families. So you can well imagine their plight, given
that they are already sad because of their physical or mental disabilities and
cannot participate in activities like normal people. Therefore, many of them
have to beg for their two meals a day just because their families are unable to
feed them and look after them. You can imagine their distress. You must have
seen blind beggars on the streets with begging bowls, not knowing how much alms
they would get. In case there is a bandh call, there may not be people to give
them anything at all. On such
days, the poor blind person may have to live without even a single meal.
Almost all of them need some help. There may not be anyone in their families to
take care of such persons. So it may be necessary to engage, even on a part
time basis, someone to take care of them. Naturally, such caretakers will have
to be given some remuneration. Therefore, Karunadhara was created on February
12, 2011 to provide some financial help to such poor differently-abled persons
for their proper care and upkeep.
There is another category of people which Karunadhara decided to help as part
of its objective. Everyone knows, nowadays it is extremely costly to get
medical treatment for particularly complicated diseases like cancer, kidney
trouble, orthopaedic ailments etc. It is hardly necessary to exaplin how
difficult it is for an ordinary wage earner to afford such costly treatment in
case they or their family members suffer from such diseases. In Assam and
Northeast, incidences of cancer are quite high. So Karunadhara, decided to
provide financial help to the extent possible to such poor patients in order
that they can avail of the required specialized treatment. It is known to
everyone that while government servants get medical treatment facilities and
reimbursement facilities for any treatment undergone by them or any member of
their family, there is no such thing for non-government personnel of the
society. The Employees State Insurance scheme does not cover
any such person who does not work in any company or factory. Neither the State
government nor the Central government has any scheme to provide financial
support to the poor people of the society I have mentioned.
Q: How did the idea to form Karunadhara come about?
A: There is a lady by the name Anindita Kalita who belonged to a poor family.
She was suffering from some complicated liver disease. As she is a good writer,
she came to be known to veteran journalist Dr Homen Buragohain. Dr Buragohain
also came to know that Anindita has a younger brother who is mentally derailed
and is extremely dependent on his family. Realising the need to provide some
financial support by the government, Dr Buragohain wrote an open letter in an
Assamese daily addressed to the Chief Minister sometime in December 2010. As
there was no response, I too wrote a letter in the vernacular daily suggesting
that it will be better to form an NGO for the purpose. Dr Buragohain was also
thinking on the same lines. Therefore, a meeting of some kind-hearted people of
Guwahati was convened on February 12, 2011. As a consequence of the meeting,
the Karunadhara Non-governmental Charitable Trust came into existence. I was
entrusted with the
responsibility of being the president of the organization. Dr Buragohain was
chosen as the chief advisor.
Q: Please tell us about the working of Karunadhara?
A: This public charitable trust has 21 trustees. It was decided at the very
outset that the organization will depend on financial help from the members of
the public to constitute the fund of Karunadhara. Accordingly, a public appeal
was issued. Karunadhara, since the very beginning, has been receiving
considerable financial support from public, particularly from the middle-income
and lower-middle income members of the society. In order to be able to chose
deserving persons of the society for grant of financial help by Karunadhara,
the trustees have designed a comprehensive pro forma to be filled up by
applicants. Thereafter, in most of the districts, assistance committees of
Karunadhara have been formed. Of late, such assistance committees have been
formed at sub division level as well. The committees not only collect donations
for Karunadhara from their respective areas, but also make available
application forms to the people wanting financial support.
There are five doctors among the trustees of Karunadhara. All the applicants
received in a particular month are jointly scrutinized by these doctors and
they furnish a joint recommendation to the president as to who among the
applicants should be given financial help and to what extent. Every month,
generally in the last week, meetings of the trustees are held and each trustee
gives his or her comment on the recommendation of the doctor trustees. The
president then, on the basis of the recommendation of the doctor trustees and
majority opinion of the trustees record the final decision and accordingly
amounts are sanctioned. The trust always gives such amounts in form of cheques
to the help-seeker or to their parents as desired. However, if the sanctioned
amount has to given in favour of another other relative/ person, then an
authority letter either from the notary or from a gazzetted officer is
required. This precaution is taken to prevent misuse of
the granted money. Those who are provided such grants are required to furnish
utilization certificates supported by vouchers as the case may be in due course
of time. In addition to the financial support, Karunadhara, as part of its
objectives, has also taken up other activities such as organizing games and
sports, performances of songs and dances, exhibition of various artistic
products made by physically challenged persons to encourage them to develop
their inborn talents and make them able to be self-reliant to the extent
possible. Another objective of Karunadhara is to kindle and develop compassion
and desire among the younger generation to help others in difficulties.
Q: What has been achievement of Karunadhara so far?
A: Till now, it has been possible for Karunadhara to disburse more than Rs 1.5
crore to deserving persons of such categories of people. Over 650 people have
been benefitted so far. Some help-seekers have got amounts up to Rs 4 lakh.
However, it has been realized by Karunadhara that in the context of huge number
of deserving persons in our society, the number of people who got the help is
quite insignificant. We receive 40/50 applications every month. We feel that
its activities can be augmented towards fulfillment of its goal only if the
richer section of the society also starts contributing to the fund liberally.
Q: What are your future plans?
A: Karunadhara has been searching for a plot of land measuring around 1 bighas
within the greater Guwahati area to set up its office as well as a
training-cum-shelter home for physically challenged persons. As Karunadhara
does not have the required financial resource to purchase such a plot, we have
approached the government for allotment of a suitable land. We will also be
grateful if any philanthropic person donates such a plot either in Guwahati or
its adjoining areas like Chandrapur. The training centre, as and when it
becomes possible to start, will concentrate on developing the inborn skills of
the differently-abled persons so that they can become at least partially
self-reliant. We also would be grateful if various corporations, industries and
particularly tea gardens come forward to financially assist the organization
towards fulfillment of its noble objectives. Karunadhara has also initiated the
process of obtaining permission from the
Government of India under the Foreign Currency Regulation Act so that it
becomes eligible for receiving financial help in foreign currency from NRIs.
( The Sentinel , melange , 22.02.2015)
Karunadhara: A movement for compassion
www.karunadhara.org
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
সমাজৰ কাৰণে ভাল কাম কৰাজনৰ পৰিচয় ৰাইজৰ আগত দাঙি ধৰিব লাগে আৰু ভাল খবৰবোৰ যিমান
পাৰি ৰাইজৰ মাজত বিলাব লাগে।
---- বুলজিৎ বুঢ়াগোহাঁই
_______________________________________________
assam mailing list
[email protected]
http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
