FEB 15, 2022
Baba Nanak Education Society (BNES) is watching, as is all of Punjab, the various political promises being trotted out in the countryside: on the one hand proud after celebrating the historic win through the heroic Farmers' Protests, on the other still as economically devastated as ever.
Punjab's Assembly elections bring the same promises: farm debt waiver, relief for widows and orphans of suicide victims, more and better rural schools, assistance to destitute elderly. But is there hope for any of these being fulfilled?
Baba Nanak Educational Society makes no extravagant promises. But they walk the talk and directly address agrarian desperation.
The aim of Saanjh's Adopt-A-Family and BNES is to keep children of suicide-affected families in school at least till class/grade 12. Only with at least basic high school qualification can they aim for a better life.
Just in the area served by BNES, 2021 alone saw over 80 farmers and farm laborer suicides: leaving behind elderly parents, widows and orphans. More details of 2021 suicides are still trickling in as BNES fieldworkers travel home to home... but the message is deathly clear again: agrarian despair is real and urgent!
Updates from Adopt a Family Program’s efforts, posted on a regular basis.
