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CARE TODAY
LEST WE FORGET
Going
Steady
CARE
TODAY buys a tractor for one disabled soldier and helps another realise
his dream of starting a mini-bus service
Yogesh
Dhondiram Pawar
6 Maratha Light Infantry
Yogesh Dhondiram Pawar was already a three-year veteran when, at the age
of 20, he got hit by Pakistani bullets in the left hip and thigh while
serving at a forward post in Uri during the Kargil war. The sepoy also
sustained shrapnel wounds in the stomach. Subsequently, he spent nearly
a year in hospitals in Srinagar, Delhi and Kirkee before being boarded
out in May this year with a 75 per cent disability. Today, back at home
in Varne (Satara district, Maharashtra), Pawar still can't move the left
foot and his leg cannot bear weight.
Pawar's main
worry had been that he had no steady source of income. Till then, he had
received Rs 10,000 from a local newspaper and a promise of two acres of
land from the district administration. He decided to use care today's
support to purchase a tractor. He would use the tractor to till the small
patch of land he owns or hire it out to local sugar factories. That has
now been done. care today contributed Rs 3 lakh for a tractor for Pawar.
It was handed over to him at a simple ceremony by Zal Cooper, a prominent
Satara industrialist, in October. Says Pawar: "This will make all
the difference."
Ashiq
Hussain
12 J&K Light Infantry
Ashiq Hussain doesn't dwell on the past. A former rifleman for 12
J&K Light Infantry, Hussain lost his fighting arm and his left eye
in the heavy shelling that took place in the Batalik sector of Kargil
in June last year. It shattered his family-his mother still weeps when
she sees her son. His wife still remembers those days of agony during
the Kargil war when she would watch army convoys go past, waiting for
one to stop. But Hussain is different, he does not want to look back.
If anything there is only one regret: the fact that he can't fight another
war, or be what in his mind he still is-a proud soldier.
Now CARE
TODAY has helped Hussain to look forward. His main worry had been that
as the bread winner of the family, he couldn't afford to sit back and
do nothing. His salary, besides running the household, also took care
of the education of his three younger siblings. Hussain, after some deliberation,
said he wanted a Tata 407 chassis which he planned to be fitted out as
a mini bus. His dream has now been realised. In October, care today helped
him buy the chassis with a contribution of Rs 3 lakh. Hussain has taken
the chassis to Jalandhar for conversion into a mini bus. "Soon I
will be able to start my own bus service," he says proudly.
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INDIA TODAY Deputy Editor Swapan Dasgupta voices the despair of a community that Jyoti Basu forcibly converted into a diaspora in his 23 years of zero-contribution rule. 