Harmit Singh Kamboe

The value of a good education in our hyper competitive knowledge based society cannot be over emphasized. One only has to look around in India to see the illiterate live under crushing poverty every day, and those that have some money but poor education make do with poorly rewarding self employed careers, and in the case of Punjabi youth pawn away everything they have to make it overseas to join the ranks of the working class in those countries.

World Bank economists David Dollar and Roberta Gatti have studied the effect of girls' education on economies. The return on investment in girls' education, they find, is not lower than the return for boys and, particularly in lower-middle-income countries, is often significantly higher. Dollar and Gatti conclude that economies "that have a preference for not investing in girls pay a price for it in terms of slower growth and reduced income."

With so much research, coupled with common sense, one would think that there is a major emphasis on education for the underprivileged in the Punjabi community. Sadly this is not true. Professional and consistent efforts are few and far between. However, instead of focusing on the negative, I am pleased to offer readers an opportunity to take part in a success story.

Two U.S. based Sikh organizations the Sikh Human Development Foundation (SHDF) and Relief Committee of Greater New York have been doing stellar work in this regard.

The Sikh Human Development Foundation

This US based and tax exempt organization has been ramping up its scholarship efforts in the past few years as is evidenced from Table 1. A total of 128 children that were awarded scholarships have already completed the courses that they were provided financial assistance for. Scholarships for students covered by the SHDF are targeted towards students studying in professional courses and are for a maximum of Rs 18,000 per annum. Readers who are curious to know whether their donations reached the needy should feel reassured that most children that were helped of the children that were awarded scholarships, figures in Table 2 should re-assure them that the scholarships were from low income families (Table 2).

Financial aid recipients are selected by administering a test that also includes an interview. Thus weightage is given both to academic and non-academic factors, and 55% of the scholarships were awarded to students studying Engineering and 16% to those studying Nursing.

Relief Committee of Greater New York

The Relief Committee was very generous in its donations for the victims of the 1984 anti-Sikh violence, and since its inception then they have kept the momentum going by channeling their resources into scholarships awarded to the young and the needy. A fair amount of the scholarships were given to students in school (grade VI to X) and the scholarship money has helped children buy books, uniforms and meet other school related expenses. Preference is given to children of widows or orphans studying in government or government aided schools.

Nishkam Sikh Welfare Council, New Delhi

For both of these organizations in the U.S., Nishkam Sikh Welfare Council, New Delhi has been the partner that helped turn noble intentions into tangible results. Distribution of scholarships by Nishkam is a well-structured process outlined as follows:

1.   Advertises the scholarships in the Indian media;

2.   Collects information on all candidates that appear in the scholarships tests;

3.   Administers and scores the tests ;

4.   Interviews selected candidates;

5.   Reports back to the donor organization on the candidates that match the required criteria; and

6.   Disburses scholarships to the student or the educational institution once funds are received.

It is incumbent upon us to share and spare what we can so that at the bare minimum our gifted youth is able to rise above the mediocre education provided in most state schools in India, and thus open doors for young men and women who wish to pursue careers in medicine, sciences, etc. but are being held back due to a paucity of funds.

Canadian donors (or international donors) who wish to donate online, please visit www.nishkamcanada.org where you can make an online donation towards the scholarship fund. Canadian donors will be instantly emailed a tax deduction receipt. Let us do our bit to build a better tomorrow for young men and women who are less privileged than us. By helping just young people fulfill their potential we can make the world a much better place.