What is history? What is revolution? While talking about
history, we also refer to the least known forest people and the period, may be
thousands of years, is categorized as proto- history. But to be more precise,
in simple words and without going to jargons, we can safely say that the
chronological account of human civilization is history. In that long story,
whenever the human society, peacefully or otherwise made a remarkable deviation
from the beaten track for its betterment,
it was acclaimed as a revolution. These drastic changes could be
political, religious, economic or on any other plane. In this backdrop, for
last over four decades, what Sulabh has been endeavouring on sanitational and
social firmament of India is adjudged as a special chapter in our history,
virtually a complete revolution. Mulkraj Anand had said that what Abraham Lincoln had
done for the black in USA, Dr Bindeshwar Pathak is doing for a similar
neglected lot india. He called them both great redeemers.
In this revolutionary saga, April 13,2015 will go down with a
momentous event when the Sulabh, in an ambitious programme, celebrated the
birth anniversary (though one day in advance) of Babasaheb Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar,
the messiah of the Dalits. The event was participated by the erstwhile
scavengers whom Sulabh liberated from their demeaning profession some years ago
and through appropriate vocational training made them financially self-reliant.
Some two dozen Sanskrit pundits from Varanasi had also come specially to be a
witness of this memorable event. The best part of this programme was the
community feeding in which all including some central ministers took food
together. The crowd was surprised to see Smt. Usha Chaumar, liberated Valmiki,
sitting by the side of Shri Rajnath Singh, Home Minister and taking food
together.Dr Ambedkar had enumerated some points for the eradication of
untouchability including the need of all sitting together and taking food.
Gandhi also had emphasized this necessity repeatedly. Today, the dreams of
these two great sons of India could be given a practical shape by the Sulabh
Founder, Dr Bindeshwar Pathak.
In the jampacked Mavlankar Hall today, while inaugurating the
function, Sh Rajnath Singh, without mincing any words, called it the most
historic moment of his life when the liberated Valmiki women fed him sweets. He
admiited that there must be a providential hand in inspiring Dr Pathak to take
up this great work. He said that delivering long lectures on removing
untouchability and doing some thing on the ground were two different cups of
tea. On that yardstick, he held, Dr Pathak’s contribution was matchless. The
Minister also did not forget to congratulate Smt Amola Pathak, frankly acknowledging
that without her services and sacrifices, her husband could not have achieved
the height on which he proudly stands today.
The participants in general and the Sulabh family members in
particular felt proud of what unprecedented they were witnessing today. Other
dignitaies like S/Sh.Jagdambika Pal, Lari Azad,
Udit Raj, Suresh Neerav etc who also graced the occasion, showered their high
appreciations for the sanitaional and social services rendered by the Sulabh
for the neglected sections of the society including Valmikis and Widows. We
know that it is a social revolution and has to be slow, but it is by far
intended to bring about drastic changes in long run in our ecological and
social fabrics.
LONG LIVE SULABH REVOLUTION!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment