Mr. Virendra Singh
“The act of replacing an empty
mind with an open one is called education.” Irrespective of the gender of a
child, he or she has the right to get educated. Educating a child leads to
educating a nation. A gallant person who has made ‘educating others’ the motto
of his life is Mr. Virendra Singh.
Since independence, the
illiteracy rate of women has increased significantly. As per a recent report,
the ratio of illiterate women is almost double the rate of illiterate men. As
of 2011, 34.5% of all Indian women were illiterate (as compared to only 17.8%
of Indian men). The
percentage of children not enrolled in school amounts to 70% girls. In
Anupshahar, the condition is even more unfortunate, where almost 85% of the
girls lack access to basic primary education. Other contributing factors to
this dismay are abuse of rural females, child marriage including forced
marriage of girls below 18 years. Girls after reaching the adolescent stage are
often denied to education and basic medical care. (Statistical data taken from http://www.education4change.org/why-girls.html )
The common effect of such
malpractice is: increased dependency of women financially. This dependence
makes them suffer the prevailing violence. They don’t have control on the
family income, which makes them devoid of nutritional and healthy diet,
inviting many health issues. These further increases the rate of child marriage
and this way the vicious cycle continues. Lack of education makes the women
unaware of the family planning and other relevant concepts and hence leads to
increase in population and other economic distress. Not everyone pay attention
to serious issues like these. Still it is because of a few responsible citizens
that this country is still in a progressing mode. One such person who has risen
above the selfish desires to do something really indispensable is Mr. Virendra
Singh.
Mr. Virendra Singh was born in the
town of Anupshahar. He was schooled in Aligarh Muslim University and completed
his engineering in Punjab. After his engineering he joined a textile industry,
but he then moved to USA to complete his Masters in Textile Engineering. After his
post graduation, he joined DuPont and remained as a part of it till his
retirement. Soon after his retirement as South Asia Head of DuPont, Washington,
he started working on his aspiring dream to serve his town. His prime concern
was the education of the girls in rural sector. While the lack of education was
a remarkable muddle, the existence of caste system and female feticide in the
rural areas made the life of women even more miserable.
At the beginning of his work, he
only had one dollar with him. So he analyzed where he should invest the same to
earn the maximum gain. He then decided to open a school at Anupshahar
explicitly for girls and to provide them a decent education. In 2000, he
started Pardada Pardadi Educational Society, called PPES to improve the lives
of girls in rural India. PPES is situated in Anupshahar, Uttar Pradesh. This
place is one among the least educated ones. In 2011, almost 97% of
the students of PPES passed the UP Board exam. This success was even furthered
when in 2012, all the students of PPES in all grades passed, i.e. a stunning
100% pass percentage. PPES aims at educating girls and making them self sustaining. It
believes that education can free them from poverty and violence. Girls can graduate
from the school at an appropriate age after which they will be eligible for
marriage. Apart from this, they will be capable to earn and hence can become
financially independent. This will certainly make the girls aware of their self
worth and they can control their own lives.
Till date, Mr. Singh incentivizes
the girl child education in two ways. They are
i)
For each
day a girl attends her school, Rs.10 is deposited in her bank account. The girl
can access the amount once she becomes eligible for marriage, which certainly
is possible after attaining 18 years of age or on attaining 21 years, whichever
happens early. This deposit amount can extend up to Rs 30000
ii)
Specific
trainings are provided in vocational skills. This makes the girls independent
and they can save from their earning after the completion of their schooling.
This saving amount can go up to
Rs 1 lakh in 3 years. This increases the chances of decent living of a girl.
Mr. Singh believes that it is just the beginning and there are still miles to
go. He
targets expanding his facilities from 1000 to around 50000 students along their
families in his tehsil.
There are different community
programmes which PPES have set forth. They include Toilet construction, Health
and cataract camps. In 2008, PPES launched an initiative “Rage to Pads”. The
idea was to produce low cost menstrual pads because most of the village women
don’t have access to sanitary pads. These women use Rags which can lead to
several infections and illness. This programme was also initiated keeping
employment opportunities in mind. The machine was bought and the first lot of
the pads was sold. The pack costs Rs20, for which the students paid Rs.10 only, and
contained 10 pads along with instructions for proper disposal. The materials
used in the pads are biodegradable making it environment friendly.
Mr. Singh quotes some instances
of his life during interview, by stating that, “It has been observed over the years
that immigrants in any country become very conscious of their own identity. I
was an immigrant in US for more than 38 years. Therefore, it was natural that I
became very conscious of being an Indian, still for whatever unknown reasons, I
was doing very well in the hierarchy of the company. I was working for DuPont.
My experience has been that the higher one moves in the hierarchy of the
company/ society. The more one gets, the opportunity to work widens. Generally,
they are intellectual giants of the society. I had the opportunity to work by
synchronizing shoulders with such individuals. In the process, I learned lots
of things and my key learning about the western culture was that the prevailing
society believes, if a leader is surrounded by a sea of misery of his/her
fellow citizens and the Leader is not actively involved in improving their
quality of life then there must be some major fault in his leadership style. I
began as an Indian and initially I felt that my leadership was in question
because I wasn’t ‘actively’ doing anything about it. Some instances are:
i)
In
a meeting, the chairman of the board asked the board members to have 15 seconds
of silence because 590 people in Sam’s country died due to two trains running
in to each other. Now every board member knows that technology exists to
prevent such an accident. It had to be pure human negligence. In the
next board meeting, the same chairman asked the board members to have 15
seconds of silence because 350 people in Sam’s country died when a boat drowned
during Monsoon rain. Head line read that boat capacity was only 100 persons.
Now, may be the chairman sincerely felt sorry for me and for those who
unnecessarily lost their lives. However, I on the receiving end felt that the
board members were probably thinking if it wasn’t for them, Sam would have been
there either on such trains or boats. I think it makes it quite clear how an
Indian would be feeling on attending such meetings every now and then”,
ii)
Once a lady friend in Paris called me just after returning from her
trip to India. “Sam I am really sorry to tell you that animals in India have
absolutely no rights” and, then she proceeded to give me several gross examples
of the treatment that several animals received in India. I listened to
my friend patiently and told her that the following weekend, I will be in Paris
and then I would explain the situation. I was planning to tell her that while
we are talking about animal rights, I would love to share with her that India
has been the nation that talked about even insects’ rights as in the Jain
religion. I was going to tell that we Indians know about the rights of every
being inside out. However, due to poverty we have to set priorities and humans
certainly come before animals, unfortunate but true. The day I was to
meet my friend, I picked up the Herald Tribune newspaper and the head line
read: A Minister in India goes to jail for stealing animal fodder money. After
reading that, I decided not to bring animal rights issue with my friend and to
her credit; she never showed me the newspaper.
He also said, “Over the
years I have faced thousands of such situations. Anyways, finally I decided to
do something about it. I then, discussed it with my wife and daughters.
Initially they were concerned about my safety (Bulandshahr is an area notorious
for high crime rate; probably the worst in India) but finally we all got
aligned. We all agreed that the day my younger daughter gets a job, I can go
back to the village where I was born. Ena (my younger daughter) got the job in
December 1999. I informed my boss about my intentions and it took him three
months to find my replacement and in March 2000, I returned to my village to do
what I have been doing till now, what I always wanted to do i.e. eliminate
poverty from rural India. It was later in life that I realized that I am
a much focused person. I can’t read seven books at a time. I read one book at a
time. Also I had the experience of starting large projects which consisted of
different countries, cities, comments - so, creating a poverty elimination model
was a thing, I felt I can put my arms around. Regarding cultivation of my
strong points, there is a business saying – ‘People grow business and
businesses grow people’. My strong points started cultivating, which I assume,
came by me growing business for DuPont (the company I worked for).”
When asked about the
challenges he encounter, he replied,” U.P is both the worst governed and the most criminal
states of India. One may have all the money in the world but if one is not
willing to bribe, then it takes minimum four years to start even a very small
primary school. Whereas my promise to myself was to start the same within three
months (school is the first of the four steps, one has to take to eliminate
poverty systematically). Secondly,
everybody in U.P. believes that if you are rich, then you must be corrupt and
so, cheating a cheat is a fair game. Initially 80% of the persons cheated on us
on all aspects possible. Thirdly,
the girl child is the most neglected creature in this part of India. So, they
all, especially politicians, suspected my intentions. Lastly, the Govt. of U.P uses the Indian law system to prevent
one from doing any good because that would further expose their indifference
and inadequacy. They take pride in screwing you and the bragging about it –
“See, I taught him a lesson! What does he think of himself, just because he has
returned from USA? So on.” Anyways,
we overcame all the difficulties and now all four verticals (Education; Health
and Hygiene; Economic Empowerment and Community Development) are operating and
our energies are being directed towards expanding to more and more villages.”
When we asked him about
the inspiration to initiate the process, He told “I was in the industry for 38
years. I managed the businesses globally. I started the work, believing mainly
in the idea that the only way to eliminate poverty was by adopting the hard
core business approach. And I still believe in the same. Therefore, returning
to my village and creating a model which would eliminate poverty, was a
business challenge for me. Because of my experience I was confident that I can
do it, the only challenge was, doing it in India and that too in Anoopshahr,
U.P., the place where no industry, no power, no roads, no medical facilities
and no running water exists. May be because of all these reasons it became more
fun” He adds saying that the first and foremost hurdle is gaining the trust of parents. He is
always questioned of his intention to promote only girl child education. The
villagers even doubt his intention to provide job to their daughters after
school. The only way to convince these people is to help them with their
queries with absolute perseverance. He elaborates how he started the school
with only 45 students and how slowly he started making people believe in him
with currently 1400
girls registered in her institute. However, the road has never been too smooth,
as there are scopes of fathers sticking their eyes on free clothes, bicycles
and books by taking advantage of their own daughters.
Mr. Singh believes that the encouragement
that he receives is solely from the smiles of these little girls. The feeling
that he can bring a difference in someone’s life is precious. It is his passion
to help others which motivates him inevitably. He defines an effective person
as the one who discovers the inner talent and utilizes it to make a difference
in the lives of other people. He adds,” Successful people all over the world have certain
common traits. They Dream big! Like Gandhiji who fought for Azaadi, Sardar
Patel who again fought for freedom, Tendulkar who turned out to be the best
cricketer of the world and many more! They convert dreams into vision; A vision
into a personal commitment. This commitment facilitates the generation of
ideas; these ideas help to give the Vision, a practical shape. In my opinion any one can dream and if they
sincerely believe in their dream, they will get the ideas to actualize their
dreams.”
Primary Source: Interview of
Mr. Virendra Singh conducted on 29th April.
1.
What
inspired to do whatever you have done for making a difference to others? What
are the sources of inspiration? (If you
like you may mention any one or two instances that changed your life and made
you start something new or something different that laid the foundation for
your work)?
It has been observed over
the years that immigrants in any country become very conscious of their own
identity. I was an immigrant in US for more than 38 years. Therefore, it was
natural that I became very conscious of been an Indian additionally, for
whatever unknown reasons, I was doing very well in the hierarchy of the
company. I was working for Dupont. My experience has been that the higher one
moves in the hierarchy of the company/ society, the more one gets the
opportunity to work and rub shoulders with extremely smart Individuals. Generally,
they are intellectual giants of the society. Naturally, I had the opportunity
to work and rub shoulders with such individuals. In the process I learned lots
of things and my key learning about the western culture was that these
societies strongly believe in the following:
If a leader is surrounded by
a sea of misery of his/her fellow citizens and the Leader is not actively
involved in improving their quality of life than there must be some major fault
in the leader’s characters.
I begin an Indian; felt that
my leadership was in question because I wasn’t ‘actively’ doing anything about
it. Below are only a couple of examples although I faced hundred and thousands
of such incidents.
a) Board
Meetings
In a meeting the chairman of the board asked the board
members to have 15 seconds of silence because “590 people in Sam’s country died
due to two trains running in to each other”. Now every board member knows that
technology exists to prevent such an accident – it had to be pure human
negligence.
In the next board MTG the same chairman asked the
board member to have 15 seconds of silence because “350 people in Sam’s country
died when a boat drowned during Monsoon rain”. Head line read that boat
capacity was only 100 persons.
Now, may be the chairman sincerely felt sorry for me
and for those who unnecessarily lost their lives. However, I on the receiving
end felt that the board members were probably thinking “If it wasn’t for us Sam
would be either on such trains or boats”. I think it makes it quite clear how
any Indian would feel attending such meetings every now and then.
b) A friend’s
call.
A lady friend in Paris (France )
called me just after returning from her trip to India
I listened to my friend patiently and told her that
the following weekend, I will be in Paris India
The day I was to meet my friend, I picked up the
Herald Tribune newspaper and the head line read: A Minister in India
After reading that, I decided not to bring animal
rights issue with my friend and to her credit; she never showed me the
newspaper.
I just gave you two examples, over the years I faced
thousands of such situations. Anyway, finally I decided to do something about
it. I then, discussed it with my wife and daughters. Initially they were
concerned about my safety (Bulandshahr is an area notorious for high crime
rate; probably the worst in India
2.
What are
the challenges that you faced while working on your initiative?
U.P is both the worst
governed and the most criminal states of India. One may have all the money in
the world but if one is not willing to bribe, then it takes minimum four years
to start even a very small primary school. Whereas my promise to myself was to
start the same within three months (school is the first of the four steps, one
has to take to eliminate poverty systematically).
Secondly, everybody in U.P.
believes that if you are rich, than you must be corrupt and so, cheating a
cheat is a fair game. Initially 80% of the persons cheated on us on all aspects
possible.
Thirdly, the girl child is
the most neglected creature in this part of India. So, they all, especially
politicians, suspected my intentions.
Lastly, the Govt. of U.P
uses the India USA
Anyway we overcame all the
difficulties and now all four verticals (Education; Health & Hygiene;
Economic Empowerment and Community Development) are operating and our energies
are being directed towards expanding to more and more villages.
3.
What is
your opinion on getting inspiration and using your talent for doing simple
things that eventually become great and make a difference in the lives of
others?
I was in the industry for 38
years. I managed the businesses globally. I started the work believing mainly
in the idea that the only way to eliminate poverty was by adopting the hard
core business approach. And I still believe in the same. Therefore, returning
to my village and creating a model which would eliminate poverty, was a business
challenge for me. Because of my experience I was confident that I can do it-
the only challenge was, doing it in India and that too in Anoopshahr, U.P., the
place where no industry exits, no power, no roads, no medical facilities, no
running water- no nothing! May be because of all these reasons it became more
fun
4.
What do you
consider as your own strong points that helped you to accomplish whatever you
have been able to? When did you discover them? How? How did you cultivate them?
It was later in life I
realized that I am a much focused person. I can’t read seven books at a time. I
read one book at a time. Secondly, I had the experience of starting large
projects which consisted of different countries, cities, comments - so,
creating a poverty Elimination Model was a thing, I felt I can put my arms
around.
Regarding cultivation of my
strong points, there is a business saying – ‘People grow business and
businesses grow people’. The growth of my strong points, I assume, came by me
growing business for DuPont (the company I worked for)
5.
What in
your opinion are some of the qualities that people need to cultivate to make a
difference to others?
Successful people all over
the world have following common traits:
They Dream big!
Like Gandhi who fought for
Azaadi, Sardar Patel who again fought for freedom, Tendulkar who turned out to
be the best cricketer of the world and many more!
They convert dream into
vision; A vision into a personal commitment
Commitment facilitates the
generation of ideas; these ideas help to give the Vision, a practical shape.
In my opinion any one can
dream and if they sincerely believe in their dream, they will get the ideas to
actualize their dreams.
6.
What
messages would you like to give for others to be or to become an effective
person?
If one sincerely loves something,
if one sincerely cares about something, then one can achieve any task or
challenge in the world.
Below are references from
which the secondary data is collected on 1st & 4th
May’15:
Reference Book: Unsung Beacons – Stories of people for whom humanity
matters, April 2013, CSIM Publications, Chennai 600116
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