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CARE TODAY
LEST WE
FORGET
Setting
Up Shop
Care Today provides financial assistance to a disabled soldier to buy
land and build his grocery store
Havildar
Rajender Singh, 42, and his colleagues
of the 315 Field Regiment were providing cover to the infantry units advancing
towards Tololing on June 2, 1999. Throughout the day they rained shells
on Pakistani positions in the Tololing-Drass sector. Finally at 9.30 p.m.,
the shelling stopped and it seemed that the soldiers of 315 Field Regiment
would have some respite. But suddenly an enemy shell landed near their
post, killing one and injuring four, including Singh.
Though the
gutsy havildar refused to leave his post, the injured were evacuated the
same night. Singh had suffered a compound fracture in the right leg. At
the hospital, his left heel came off along with his shoe. Though it has
been reconstructed by plastic surgery it cannot bear his body's weight.
His right leg has still not healed and needs another operation.
In May 2000,
Singh was boarded out of the army with a 40 per cent disability. He returned
to his home in Partapur village in Ghaziabad district of Uttar Pradesh.
For Singh, a new battle had just begun. His immediate worry was not his
recovery but a permanent occupation and the marriage of his elder daughter,
18-year-old Neetu. The family, comprising his wife and three children,
does not own much agricultural land and was largely dependent on his salary.
Desperate to find a livelihood, the brave soldier who once commanded artillery
guns was forced to work at a vegetable shop in Delhi.
The clouds
of despair were blown away when care today decided to adopt him in September
2000. Care Today will provide financial assistance to Singh to help him
set up a kirana shop in Pilkhua town. The Society has already given him
Rs 1.24 lakh for a 950 sq ft plot there. Singh plans to build two shops
on this land-one for his own business and the other to rent out. Care
Today will fund the construction.
But the
construction will have to wait till Neetu is married in February and Singh's
17-year-old son, Hemant, leaves in March to join the 315 Field Regiment.
Finally, life seems to be falling in place for the brave soldier.
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