Father of the brides

Surendra Nath Singh, who is better known as Sunny Singh, has been working for the betterment of underprivileged girls, whose future, including their marriages, has been his main concern since the last four years

Raj Kanwar

His little known Tons Valley Education Trust has become a harbinger of a different kind for many an underprivileged girls, mostly teenagers. Sunny Singh aka Surendra Nath Singh, a Dosco and retired executive director from General Electric Company of India in Calcutta, has ushered in a new awakening amongst the young girls from economically backward families in Guniyal and nearby villages on the outskirts of Dehradun. Now the girls have acquired a craving of sorts for learning English and elementary computing.

A few years into his retirement, Singh had returned to Dehradun. "Frankly, I myself didn't know what had attracted me to the city after so many years. But I decided to build a cottage in Guniyal Gaon, far from the maddening crowd of Delhi," he reminisces.

Soon enough he noticed the plight of the girl child in the villages around him. The transformation then came easily. Surendra Nath Singh, the suave happy-go-lucky gentleman of Calcutta, soon became Sunny Singh. With a makeover, he gave away his western clothing; gave up drinking and smoking and started growing a beard and resolved to do something to improve the lot of these village girls and to impart to them skills in English language and elementary computing. "I felt I must have a purpose in life and decided to give something back to the society," he says. His Summer Home thus became his 'Karam Bhumi'.

The Centre started in November 2006 with only six girls, with an object to educate girls, 13 years and above, of BPL families. "Initially the parents were reluctant to send their daughters since they were also earning members by doing odd domestic jobs. But soon as the word spread, more and more girls started coming in, and within a year or so, we had strength of 53," says Sunny.

The Trust does not get any government aid or funding, and is totally dependent on donations from Sunny's family members and friends. It has taken upon itself the entire responsibility of even providing higher education to these girls and sponsors their college education; it not only pays for their tuition fees but also meets all other needs, including clothing and books. Currently, there are 13 college-going girls, and many of them are doing very well in their studies. Additionally, the Trust also takes care of their health problems. Five senior doctors have now volunteered to attend to the girls at no cost; even medicine is provided wherever possible.

Remarkably, the Trust has also taken over the onerous responsibility of helping towards marriage for the girls. "In a land where the birth of a girl child is considered a curse in many families, God has given me 53 'daughters' to take care of," says Sunny who has already married three daughters to fairly well-to-do grooms.

The Trust has now become the first in Uttarakhand, perhaps India, to introduce tiny laptops designed by Professor Nicholas Negroponte of Massachusetts Institute of Technology with view to donating these to primary school classrooms in developing countries around the world. Currently, classes are held in a small makeshift classroom, in a decrepit state, near the village temple. "I cannot afford to buy expensive land. The Trust will construct the school at its own cost for which I have already received financial commitment and will be able to admit other children from the surrounding villages. My girls have now become quite ambitious. All of them want to do something worthwhile in life. So I must be able to provide them best possible environment," says Sunny very proudly.