Quiet a service! This septuagenarian has donated her life savings

Mohit Khanna

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 15

While big corporate houses publicise their donations, which are actually made for tax benefits, there are some who are quietly making a difference in the lives of others with their limited resources.

Meet Harbhajan Kaur (70), a resident of Sector 46-C and a retired Markfed employee, who has given away all her savings (of nearly Rs 50 lakh) for the welfare of poor and needy.

She has so far donated nearly Rs 22 lakh for the treatment of 37 patients in the PGI. Her contribution caught the attention of the PGI authorities when she donated Rs 11 lakh for the poor patient welfare fund. In recognition of her selfless service to the society, the PGI is going to honour her on July 16, the foundation day of the institution.

Speaking to Chandigarh Tribune, Harbhajan Kaur said, “I strongly believe in the teachings of Sikh Gurus, who stressed on the joy of giving. With God’s grace, my three children — two daughters and a son — are well settled. After my retirement, I decided to use the savings for the welfare of the poor. My husband Iqbal Singh supported the cause.”

A devout Sikh she is helping poor patients irrespective of their caste, creed or religion. “I was fortunate to have brought up in an environment where stress was being laid on serving the mankind,” she said.

Apart from helping poor patients for four years, she ran stitching centres in villages in the periphery of the city and Mohali. She donated sewing machines at Badri Narayan Mandir in Sohana. She had set up first stitching centre at the Sikh Missionary College Complex, Phase XI, Mohali.

For years, she gave a monthly assistance of Rs 500 per month to 15 widows in the villages of Jallowal and her native village Munakkala in Hoshiarpur. She had donated physiotherapy machines worth over Rs 6 lakh to the Sikh Missionary College and the Industrial Centre, Channalo, near Kurali.

The septuagenarian receives lot of respect from the residents of Sohara near Kharar after she helped a crisis-hit family set up a shop.

“What moved me the most was to see a man, who used to pull rickshaw and lost both his arms in an accident. I helped him set up a small shop. With little bit of monetary contribution, the man has managed to run his household,” said Harbhajan Kaur, as she leaves to help another needy patient.