Inspiration
This doctor is taking every effort to educate ragpickers.
Thanks to Chappola’s community center, even the parents of these ragpickers have now started to realise the importance of education. He motivates children by offering chocolates to attend class. He also provides free school uniforms and textbooks to children.
They say that some personality traits run in the family and are inherited from generation to generation. This is especially true of Dr. Govind Singh Chappola, a paediatrician from the non-descript town of Neem ka Thana in Sikar district of Rajasthan.
Inspired by his late father's community work, Chappola set up a community center right in front of his house in Singhiwal Basti last year. He even appointed a teacher whose salary he pays from his own pocket.
Every afternoon between 3 pm and 5 pm scores of children – all ragpickers – descend on the community center and get busy studying.
"I started this in October last year and till the time of summer vacation we enrolled over 100 students in just 4 months. Of them about 35-40 children are coming to study regularly. Some of them never went to any school," said Chappola. "I am happy that at least 10 of these students have now joined a regular school. It was my dream that they should be motivated to join the school," he said. "Since the beginning of this new session about 50 days back, we have enrolled 70 such children as students," he added. "I am sure that in future the number will increase. My main aim is to motivate these children and their parents about education," he said.
Reminiscing fondly about his father, Chappola says that his true motivation came from Sultan Singh Chappola, his father who always tried to help people. He wanted to motivate children to study and so would organise prize distribution ceremony at schools.
Thanks to Chappola’s efforts, even the parents of these ragpickers have now started to realise the importance of education. Like his father, he too motivates children albeit in a different way by offering chocolates to attend class. He also provides free school uniforms and textbooks to children.
Chappola, who works at the Kapil Hospital, offers free treatment to the children and provides medicines as well. "I want to see these children happy, healthy and educated. It is a small effort for my own satisfaction and I am doing it without any help," Chappola said.
Images used for representational purposes only