Amritsar rickshaw-puller gets ‘service to humanity’ award

Faridkot, September 14

The Baba Farid Society has announced names of winners of the 22nd Baba Farid Award for Honesty and Bhagat Puran Singh Award for Service to Humanity.

Rajbir Singh, 45, is known for penning book ‘Rickshaw Tey Chale Zindagi’ — a compilation of 14 short stories on his 20-year experience as a rickshaw puller, meeting people of different ages and mindsets.

While rickshaw-puller Rajbir Singh (45) of Chheharta town of Amritsar has been selected for Bhagat Puran Singh Award for Service to Humanity, Kumar Saurav Raj, former Deputy Commissioner of Faridkot, has been chosen for the award for honesty.

Rajbir is known for penning the book ‘Rickshaw Tey Chale Zindagi’. The book is a compilation of 14 short stories on his 20-year experience as a rickshaw puller, meeting people of different ages and mindsets. The book has painful but inspiring stories of many poor mechanics, rickshaw-pullers and daily wagers who live a hard life to run their families. He has also installed a donation box in his rickshaw to collect money for the poor.

Instituted in 2000, each award carries Rs 1 lakh and a citation. The awards would be presented on September 23, the concluding day of the Baba Farid Festival, said Inderjeet Singh Khalsa, chairman of the society. — TNS

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