Soon after the Kargil war began in 1999, we set up CARE TODAY to channelise the contributions of our readers towards the rehabilitation of soldiers rendered unfit for action in various operations. The society has completed the work of resettling 28 heroes, while four projects are under way. The Lest We Forget fund is closed and the Rs 1.15 crore donated to the fund stands fully committed.

VED SINGH, 29 Rashtriya Rifles

MEASURED OPTIMISM: Singh plans to expand his new house in Bhind (above) to include a street-facing cloth shop

Ved Singh, like his fellow soldiers, lived a life fraught with danger. As a rifleman serving with the 29 Rashtriya Rifles (Grenadiers) in Jammu and Kashmir, he could expect the unexpected. On patrol duty at Pattan in Baramullah district in May 2000, life suddenly took such a turn. Singh lost both his legs and his right arm in an IED blast. He soon had to leave the army.

Singh, a resident of Bendipura in Bhind, Madhya Pradesh, had domestic responsibilities towards his family and his old parents and was keen to find a job. But he knew the odds were against it since he was confined to the house and the village offered no prospects of a remunerative venture. When the local Sainik Board told him there were no jobs available, he applied for a petrol pump in Bhind.

In October 2001, CARE TODAY helped the 25-year-old purchase a small house in Bhind town with a grant of Rs 3 lakh. The house is on the Bhind-Gwalior road and has two rooms. Singh plans to redesign the house to include a shop in the front where he will run a cloth business in partnership with his brother. Ved Singh has received his dues from the army but the compensations and pension are yet to reach him. He expects to receive Rs 2,000 a month as pension and Rs 4 lakh as compensation, of which he will spend Rs 2 lakh on the construction of the shop while investing Rs 1 lakh in his business. He will start work on the house as soon as it is registered in his name. The paraplegic hero, who uses artificial limbs, need not fear the future now.

LAKHWINDER SINGH, 10 J&K Rifles

CYBER HOPE: Singh will build a computer centre on this plot

When 10 J&K Rifles launched an attack against infiltrators in the Drass sector in December 1999, Naik Lakhwinder Singh faced a hail of bullets. Felled by 21 bullets, he lay in a coma for 11 months. While his family gave up hope of his recovering, the plucky resident of Naraingarh, a village in Hoshiarpur district of Punjab, had enough fight left in him to recover. However, when told on regaining consciousness that he had lost mobility below the waist, he lost heart. "But when I thought of my old parents, my wife and my four-year-old son, I knew I had to live for them," he says. Only, he knew living would be a struggle for someone who had only studied up to Class XII and was the sole earning member of the family.

Singh, 28 now, has not been released from the army yet. He is planning to open a computer centre and has enrolled in a computer course at the Queen Mary's Technical Institute, Pune. Once the course is over, he will ask permission to leave the army and start his new venture.

In November 2001, CARE TODAY gave Singh an assistance of Rs 3 lakh when he decided to buy a plot at Dasuya town in Punjab. The state Government has granted him Rs 5 lakh for constructing a house, a part of which he will use for the computer centre. The wheelchair-bound Singh may also take up other suitable jobs. He has been approached by Castrol for setting up a Castrol booth under the company's Operation Healing Touch. Pepsi too has made an offer. The hero, who the Naraingarh villagers have honoured with the title of "Living Martyr", seems headed for a brighter future.