Pingalwara – Founded by Bhagat Puran Singh

Pingalwara at Amritsar, founded by Bhagat Puran Singh in 1934, is a unique organisation in the world. Bhagat Puran Singh Ji was born in a Hindu Family with an original name as Ramji Dass. One day, when at Gurudwara Reru Sahib, he noticed the people serving in the Langar without any discrimination and then later on he heard Gurbani, he was highly impressed and got converted to Sikh religion with an object of the development of his body, mind and soul. The principal of serving the humanity as preached by Sikh religion brought a revolutionary change in his life. Whenever, he found a person suffering from some disease, he brought along with him and served the patient with all dedication. It was in 1934 that he found a four year spastic child lying
unattended at the entrance of Gurdwara Dehra Sahib, Lahore and when on enquiries he found that there was no one to care about him, he took the Childs and made his back and shoulders the Childs permanent aboded.
That was the beginning of a great foundation of Pingalwara. When, the number of his patients increased, he kept all of them along with him wherever he got a roof on his head, weather it was a footpath, a covered place near the gate of Guru Tegh Bahadar Hospital (then VJ Hospital). During that hard period of his life he used to beg ‘roties’ (loaves of bread) from various houses/’dhabas’ to look after the ailing destitute, take them to hospital, wash them clean of their excretion, wash their dirty clothes, sweep clean the place (read katcha floor), scrub and clean the utensils, etc. All these duties, Bhagat Ji performed all alone.

All India Pingalwara Society

When the number of inmates grew to 22, he employed a part-time sweeper. He acquired one old rickshaw, removed its four wheels along with the part-frame and tied two bamboos to the back wheels and converted it into a hand-pulled rickshaw to carry the sick to the hospital. This was the first ‘ambulance’ of Bhagat Ji’s Pingalwara. Thus, he became walking-stick of the destitute old men, guard of the forlorn and hapless women and guardian of the orphaned children. Spending a hard life on the road-berms and foot-paths, he occupied an evacuee kothi (house) near the Civil Surgeon’s Office, which had to be vacated after some time. Then, in 1950, he occupied the incomplete building of Inder Palace Cinema and a Sarai in the Ram Talai area. During all these years, Bhagat Ji was joined by many good associates, helpers and philanthropies like S. Narayan Singh and S. Kundha Singh. Thus, with a help of these persons, a piece of land was purchased at the present site of the Pingalwara at GT Road on 27th November 1958. This could become possible due to the instructions of the then Union Rehabilitation Minister Mehar Chand Khanna, to whom Dr. Gopi Chand Bhargawa, CM Pb. had spoken. Dr. Bhargawa knew Bhagat Ji from his Lahore days and was his admirer as well.

This way the Pingalwara came into being in a proper way. The All India Pingalwara Society (Regd.), Amritsar had already been got registered as such from the Registrar of Companies, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh on 6th March, 1957. Throughout his life Bhagat Ji not only served the suffering humanity by physical ailments, but also awakened them to various social, spiritual and educational issues. He was fully conscious of educating the people regarding deterioration of human values and also of the surrounding environment which could proves disastrous for the coming generations. He wants the people that they should not play with the Mother Nature and think seriously to tackle the present and future problems. To quote him ‘those who are not paying attention will suffer for the carelessness. The consequences of this horrible and deteriorating environment will be that people will start dying with hunger. About fifteen million people will die annually. Many places in world will face famine in next 100 years. There will be a tremendous change in climate. Our earth will again experience ice age. The fertile land will be converted to barren land. He wrote about all these problems and
distributed such literature free of cost.

Dr. Bibi Inderjeet Kaur Ji appointed as Successor

Before leaving the world for good, Bhagat Ji appointed a worthy successor for his activities. This successor, Dr. Inderjeet Kaur had met Bhagat Ji when she was completing her medical education. She was highly influenced by the life and the mission of serving the abandoned, orphaned and poor as started by Bhagat Ji, and she decided to work along with him for such a noble mission. Her dedication, energy and desire to do this kind of work had convinced Bhagat Ji that she could carry on the mission successfully. She not only proved her worth up to his expectations, but also expanded all activities in which Bhagat Ji had interest and had initiated during his life time. These areas of activities being multifarious included the caring of the sick, disabled, mentally challenged, left alone senior citizen and destitute children.

Further, giving them proper medical treatment and facilities to improve (tricycles etc. for the handicapped), teaching the children to the extent possible, inculcating among them an interest in sports, organizing various seminars on the rights of such persons, their rehabilitation and their recognition in the society. Similarly, regarding environmental issues, Bhagat Ji favoured tree plantation and natural farming. Dr. Inderjeet Kaur, popularly known as Bibiji with the help of other members of the society has not only increased the number of Pingalwara branches for the benefit of more and more patients, but has also provided for free supply of medicines, physiotherapy centres, ultrasound centres, and also a state of art operation theatre for surgery of ear including cochlear implant. Now there are seven Pingalwara branches. These branches and the number of patients being attended there are as follow : Amritsar (340), Manawala Complex (873), Pandori Branch (95), Goindwal Branch (95), Jalandhar Branch (38), Sangrur Branch (215) & Chandigrah Branch (114). The total no. of patients is 1770.

Pingalwara’s Services for Education

Coming to the field of education, a number of schools have been started for the education of poor and other children under treatment. Bhagat Puran Singh Adarsh School at Manawala provides free education including uniforms and books to 771 students. There is another school for deaf children at Manawala with 180 students on its role. For mentally and physical challenged inmates of Pingalwara, a separate school is providing education to such 169 students. In addition to Manawala there is another high school for the poor children of Quadian area situated at Buttar Kalan (461 students). Many of these students have been encouraged to participate and excel in sports. As a result two of Pingalwara’s special children Dolly and Shallu have won medals in World Summer Special Olympics held at Los Angeles, USA during July-August, 2015 and two others Raju Rajinder (Gold) and Poonam (Bronze) have won medals in World Winter Special Olympic held at Viena Austria during March, 2017.

Environmental and other activities of Pingalwara Bibiji has also given stimulus to various environmental activities including tree plantation, distribution of free saplings and literature and the educating the people through seminars, marches and other awareness programmes. The most important is the development of a farm house at Manawala with natural farming (pesticide and chemical fertilizer free cultivation of crops). The Pingalwara society also organises workshops on natural farming and seminar discussions on various diseases including cancer and AIDs for creating awareness. It also prints and distributes free of charge considerable literature on religious, medical, social, ethical and environmental issues. Many charitable activities have also been undertaken by the organisation in the times of natural calamities with a view to help the people. Some of them are listed hereunder: During the devastating floods of Punjab in 1988, Pingalwara collected money for the specific purposes and distributed relief among the needy and the affected people, also motivated the people in general and the youth in particular to come forward to give relief and solace to the people in distress. During the disastrous earthquake in Latur (Maharashtra) in 1993, took truck load of food stuff, clothes, blankets, and medicines and distributed among the distressed and needy. Distribution of ration, clothes and blankets to flood victim in Jalandhar and Kapurthala Districts during 2008 Distribution of blankets and clothes to Flash Flood victims in December, 2010 at Leh. Blood Donation Camps are organized every year at the Pingalwara on Bhagat Puran Singh Ji Barsi Celebration Day and donated the Govt. Hospital, Amritsar and Sri Guru Ram Dass Charitable Hospital, Amritsar. 195 units of blood was collected during the camp in August 2016 Distributed food stuff, clothes and blankets to J&K border residents who had vacated their homes on account of across the border shelling and terrorism. A Gaushala at Manawala Branch housing more than 100 cows. Cremation of unclaimed dead bodies. Donation of eyes of unclaimed dead bodies Free Ration to poor and needy families.

Honours for Bibiji

Whereas Bibiji has been honoured for her dedicated services to mankind by various organisations and at different platform including the highest honour of Padam Bhushan by the Govt. of India, she has never forgotten her mentor Bhagat Puran Singh Ji. She organizes the celebration of the death anniversary of Bhagat Ji every year wherein dignitaries and scholars from all over the world assemble and pay their tribute to the great epitome of service and sacrifice. A lot of literature has also been published on the life and works of Bhagat Ji and some documentaries and a feature film titled as ‘Eh Janam Tumahre Lekhe’ have also been made to perpetuate of the memory of Bhagat Puran Singh, who was another Mother Teresa of India. It is because of all these efforts and achievements of Pingalwara society and its management team including Doctors like Dr. Jagdeepak Singh (Vice President), S. Mukhtar Singh (Hon. Secretary) and environmentalists like Dr. Rajbir Singh, Sh. Parkash Chand Jain, Preetinderjeet Kaur, S. Tarlochan Singh Chima and S. Ramnik Singh (all members) led by Bibiji, Dr. Inderjeet Kaur that a large number of people including dignitaries and Ambassador of foreign countries have visited this august organisation and felt highly inspired. Contact details of this organization are +91-183-2584713, +91-183-2584586 & E-Mail : pingalwara57@gmail.com.

sikhpride