The value of a good education in todays’ hyper competitive knowledge 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 a poor education wither make do with poorly rewarding self employed careers or in the case of Punjabi youth pawn away everything they have to make it overseas, where they join the working class.

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 that 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 US based Sikh organizations, the Sikh Human Development Foundation (www.shdf.org) and the Relief Committee of Greater New York have been doing stellar work in this regard.

The Sikh Human Development Foundation (www.shdf.org)

This US based and tax exempt organization has been ramping up its scholarship efforts in the past few years. From 2002 through to 2005, 194 children have been granted scholarships.

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 to students studying in professional courses and are for a maximum of Rs 18,000 per annum. Scholarships have been largely aimed at female students from a rural background and most of the recipients come from families that make less than Rs 50,000 a year.

Candidates are selected by administering a test that also includes an interview. Thus weightage is given both to academic and non academic factors. 55% of the scholarships have been 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 afflicted of the anti Sikh1984 violence. Since then they have kept the momentum going and channeled their energy into award of scholarships for the young and the needy too. From 2002 through to 2005, a toal of 735 scholarships were extended through Nishkam India.

A fair amount of the scholarships here have been 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/government aided schools.

Nishkam Sikh Welfare Council, New Delhi (www.nishkam.org)

For both of these organizations in the US, Nishkam Sikh Welfare Council, New Delhi has been the partner that has provided the final missing links between noble intentions and being able to turn them into action.

Nishkam India

1. Advertises the scholarships in the Indian media
2. Collects information on all the candidates that appear in the scholarships tests
3. Administers the tests and scores the candidates
4. Interviews them
5. Reports back to the donor organization on the candidates that match the criteria provided
6. Disburses scholarships to the student or the educational institution as the case may be, once funds are received

I think 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 what the mediocre education the state schooling system in India provides. We must open doors for our young who wish to pursue careers in medicine, sciences etc. but are being held back due to lack of funds.

For any Canadian donors (or international donors that wish to donate online), please visit Nishkam Canada, (www.nishkamcanada.org) where you will be able to make an online donation for our scholarship fund. Canadian donors will be instantly emails a tax deduction receipt.