The Barpali Days

Budhadeb Meher : A Torch Bearer for his village children

In India CSR or the Community Social Responsibility is a trend that has gained momentum in the recent past only. But it is to be noted that, CSR is being vied by the corporate as an instrument either to evade the tax or to hallucinate the mass. Yet there are some good Samaritans who are working at the grass root of the nation to build a vibrant and strong nation called India. Here in Bargarh District we as well got few philanthropists, but their glory remained unsung. The irony is that we never acknowledge the contribution they made to the society either because of our ignorance or because we are much jealous of their good deeds.

Sh.Budhadeb Meher an octogenarian of Dahita village under Padampur Sub-Division of Bargarh Dist. is a social activist on his own accord. He wanted to provide the education to his village children as he himself has been deprived of this basic need during his childhood. He recalls there was no school or the classroom in his village Dangachancha which falls under Rajborasambar region of Bargarh District. Basically this area is an arid region, hence drought prone. Most of the people are either Schedule Caste or Schedule Tribe and lead life Below the Poverty Line(BPL). In that village one teacher used to teach Oriya alphabets for a couple of hours in a cow shed, called guhal path. During the pre-independence era note books, pens and pencils were not yet commercially available in rural India. Education was imparted only orally. In those decades the parents unable to afford to buy the black slates and the chalk pieces. So Budhadeb and his friends need to crush the red bricks and collect its dust. They use to spread the ochre brick dust on the floor and with fingers use to draw the Oriya alphabets and numeric. Whereas today’s children got every comfort be it the note books, pens or the pencils. But seldom they seat at home to study their text books. Instead day long they are engaged on playing electronic games in the tabs, cell phones, laptops or be it the computers.

During the prime years of his life he executed many welfare projects for the society, that too without any willful political motive. He erected the front gate of the Dahita High School so as no bovine be it cattles or cows should trespass to the school premises. On the other hand he donated a three decimal plot and INR 20,000 to build the DPEP school at Dahita. Then he realised when the school children pass out of 10^th Standard, where they would go to pursue further studies. There was not a single college in and around five Panchayats be it Dahita, Buden, Budamal, Dahigaon or Khaliapali. In the meanwhile the Govt. of Odisha issued a circular to build a college in that area.

Budhadeb along with the people of surrounding villages build a committee to set up a college. Budhadeb took the lead position by donating INR 1,10,000. On the other hand he donated his agricultural land to pave the road to reach the proposed sight of +2 Arts college. This college was inaugurated in the year 1996. Its 20 years since then. As on this date this college is employing seven lecturers to impart the education to around 280 students of either gender most of whom hails from Below Poverty Line(BPL). Mr.Susanta Mishra the English lecturer of this college says, over the two decades many of their students able to build a career for self and got well settled in life. Two of its students by the name Sobhagya Hota and Aditya Panigrahi qualified as bank Probationary Officers(PO) and got jobs with two Scheduled National Banks. Whereas Tapabanta Pandey got a job with Dept. of Posts.

It’s worth acknowledging how a virtual illiterate Oriya built a school and a college with his meager income to impart the education to his village children, while he himself has been deprived off it in life.

On 27th May 2017 Buddhadeb Meher has been felicitated as a Change Agent of Odisha by Bhubaneswar based civil society Yes We Can. His name was nominated by developer of this blog E Kiran Mohan

kiranbima@gmail.com

WhatsApp# +918249314972

E.Kiran Mohan(writer)

C/o.Dr.E.R.Rao(MD)

Tehsil Chowk,

At\PO: BARPALI – 768029

Dist.Bargarh, Odisha, India

E Kiran Mohan 6