How often do you come across someone who is fierce to do something for society? Well, people, meet Nandlal Master; a well-known social activist from Varanasi; who works in many spheres to eradicate child poverty, illiteracy, and child marriage.
The social activist believes educating people is the key to empowering them. Education is the biggest weapon you can give somebody to empower them and improve their lives.
To establish this foundation, the social activist himself overcame many obstacles and hardships in his life. Because of his own experience, Nandlal is driven by the idea that no child should ever experience the kind of hardship he did.
We at Mad4India have brought you this story of grit, courage, hardships, and determination that this social activist dealt with his entire life to set up his NGO Lok Samiti in 1994.
Early life and Struggles Of The Social Activist:-
Nandlal Master comes from a family of saree weavers and money lenders. He lived a very fruitful and happy life up until the sole earner of his family; his father died. He lost his biggest supporter and the burden of 6 family members came to the shoulders of Nandlal’s mother. She had to work as a daily wage labourer to make ends meet.
He had gone to his elder sister’s place for further studies, but the situation was such that the now-turned-social activist left his B.sc. midway to come back to help his mother, who was in dire need. In such a situation, you either sink or swim.
Our social activist – Nandlal Master took the challenges head-on. He learned his traditional business of saree weaving to support his family.
The many hardships and struggles that the social activist had faced early on in life made him determined that no one ever has to face anything like that.
Social Activist Nandlal Master Started Educating Village Kids
‘Shiksha se hi Shaksharta’
This holds so true in the case of social activist Nandlal Master who believes that if poor people are given this excellent tool – the ‘right to education’; they will surely be able to uplift themselves on their own.
At 17, Nandlal Master started providing free education to the children in the evening in 1994, with over 500 students enrolled in their education centres.
Social Activist Nandlal Master’s Efforts To Fight Child Marriage
To fight another social evil- ‘child marriage’- This social activist is doing everything he can to protect the young kids.
Child marriage is a serious social ill that is pervasive in society. At a young age, when they ought to have access to education, these helpless kids are burdened with a lot of responsibility, which is abusing their youth. However, due to a lack of resources, families in poverty are compelled to marry off their children.
Social activist Nandlal Master organizes group marriages in his organization to combat this social evil so that poor families can wed their children at the right age even when they have limited resources.
Hardships Didn’t Break Social Activist Nandlal Master’s Will
His organization Lok Samiti, educates village kids and often organizes outdoor programs for the growth of the kid’s overall development from time to time.
In one such event in Mirzapur, the bus with which they were travelling met with an accident,1 kid lost his life and 36 others were injured. In these hard times, Nandlal didn’t lose hope and started a crowdfunding program to help his students get the best treatment and collected Rs. 36, 000 with the help of local villagers and Panchayat.
At a time when everybody appreciated his efforts, some people were jealous of his success and wanted to defame him in every possible way. There was a time many NGOs wanted to cash in on his efforts and approached the social activist.
In one such cultural program, police raided his study centre and found that the social activist was promoting child labour through his organization and bad-mouthed him. Nandlal was shattered and totally broken by the whole incident.
‘Bhagwan jab ek darwaza band karta h, tab dusra kholta h ‘
This holds so true in the case of social activist Nandlal Master who found support from the parents of the same children whom he supported and explained to all the villagers that he only wishes the best for their children. He only wants the kids to learn these basic skills along with their education so that they can support their families in their time of need and be able to feed themselves as well.
In the Covid times, social activist Nandlal Master sold the handmade mask made by the poor women and girls of the villages and provide them employment where so many lost their jobs he made sure they are able to feed themselves.
We at Mad4India, salute the efforts of this social activist Nandlal Master, who is doing so much for underprivileged kids and people. Indeed he made us believe in the goodness of people is worth applauding.
To learn more about his organization, check Lok Samiti
Feature images: 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5
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