By Rajiv Malik, Principal Correspondent, HPI
NEW DELHI, INDIA, May 22, 2007. “Hinduism is a way of life and an art of living. This is what we are going to teach these 23 young children, many of whom are from Kashmir and have lost their parents due to the problem of terrorism in the state. I am sure a lot of support and help will come to this project as more and more people become aware of the selfless and noble cause undertaken by those who have set up Sadhna Kunj for taking care of hundreds of such children in the times to come.” These views were expressed by Ms. Aarti Mehra, the recently-elected mayor of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi. She was addressing a large gathering of social workers, political personalities, community leaders and businessmen at the Sadhna Kunj children’s home located on the outskirts of New Delhi on Sunday, May 20, 2007. Mehra, herself a patron of this project, was visiting it for the first time after taking over as the mayor of Delhi to offer her continued support to the project.
Earlier, sharing his views with the assembly, the former director of CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) and a patron of Sadhna Kunj project, Shri Joginder Singh, said that the work being done by projects like these was extremely important though it was not so much visible. Shri Singh said that the children’s home was doing the job of transforming the consciousness of the small children.
Proposing a vote of thanks to the large number of people who had come to attend the function braving the extremely hot weather conditions on a summer afternoon, the head of Sadhna Group, Sadhna Religious TV Channel and the main brain behind the project, Shri Rakesh Gupta had this to say, “Our commitment is to provide the Hindu sanskars to these children while taking care of all expenditure incurred on their education, clothing, shelter and food. We would like them to become good Hindus and highly successful people in prestigious professions including Indian Administrative Services and Indian Police Services.” Shri Gupta also highlighted that if such children were not adopted and looked after by the society through these kind of projects they could fall into wrong hands resulting into a disastrous situation for the Hindu society and the nation itself. According to Shri Gupta, a family-like atmosphere was being provided to the children and the social workers managing the project had unanimously decided not to call the children “orphans” or the home an “orphanage.”