Born in Daryapur panchayat, 80 km away from Bhagalpur in Munger district, Das grew up learning the value of education. "I had to walk a long way each day to reach the school located at far-off Kharagpur village. As the area was crime-prone, very few ventured to send their children to school for fear of a kidnapping for ransom. The girls, particularly, remained illiterate. Even my cousin sisters could not study. So I always wanted to do something for my native place and for the downtrodden," he explains. He had to wait till 1983 to realise his wish. With a meagre sum of Rs 15,000 he constructed three huts at Daryapur and started a school. The mukhiya of the village panchayat, Dayanand Yadav, now the secretary of the school, extended a lot of help. Till now, Das has spent over Rs 10 lakh from his own pocket apart from bearing the annual expense of paying salaries to 10 teachers and other necessities.
"My biggest pleasure is seeing the village girls coming to the school," he says. An incentive is the token tuition fee: Rs 10. As of now, 200 boys and around 100 girls study in this institution, appropriately called the Dr G.N. Das High school. The present strength is a qualitative improvement on the 75 students the school started with. Incidentally, the education minister of Bihar, Jayaprakash Yadav, belongs to this very area. But despite that, there is no government school in the area and this is the only institution providing education here. The doctor says he has requested the minister several times to grant 'recognition' to the school, but to no avail. So, the students have to take the final matriculation examination from other recognised schools. And there they have to pay a cumulative, four-year fee before being allowed to appear for the exams. "It comes as a big blow and I feel quite defeated," laments Das.
But he's continuing the good work, and in fact, extending it beyond his home village. Das also runs schools in the backward Musahar slums in Bhagalpur. At the Barari and Khanjarpur slums, not only has he appointed teachers for women but also distributes education materials like pencils, slates and books. Recognition of his work came, ironically, from abroad. Two American organisations-American Organisation for Development of Bihar (aodb) and India Literacy Project (ilp)-extended help in his literacy mission for the slums in 1997 and 1998. In addition to this, the good doctor sometimes also provides free medical care. And during his last visit, he organised a free cataract camp at Nathnagar in Bhagalpur.
Dr Das' zeal became evident when, during his stint as the military hospital in-charge in Katihar during 1956-59, he voluntarily established an isolation ward for TB patients-this, despite the fact that the disease was much dreaded at the time. His efforts did earn him a certificate of appreciation from the government. But his driving force remains rooted in a painful personal memory: "My father died when I was only two. Later, I learnt the cause: he died because there wasn't anyone around to perform a blood transfusion when he needed it. It was then that I resolved to become a doctor." Now, his three sons live in the US and after retiring as civil surgeon in Gopalpur, Bihar, Das has made his home with them. But as he himself says, his soul remains here. He can be contacted at 834 Strick Roth Drive, Milpitas, CA, 95035, usa (phone 408-934-0201) or at Adampur, Behind Akaswani Bhawan, Bhagalpur (phone 0641-401308). #
