Thursday, April 23, 2015

Perambalur Collector, Darez Ahmed, Another Sathyarthi In The Making?

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I read this news in The Hindu today:


Perambalur Collector receives PM’s award! 

'Perambalur Collector Darez Ahmed has received the ‘Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in public administration.’ Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave away the award, which carries a purse of Rs. 1 lakh, in appreciation of his service in protecting girl children. 

Mr. Darez Ahmed had evolved various programmes to check foeticide and female infanticide. . Focus on ante-natal care included a special surveillance to check foeticide.'
  
I suddenly remembered reading about him just a couple of days back in a Tamil weekly magazine, 'Ananda Vikatan'.


Perambalur is a municipality town near Cuddalore and Salem (Tamilnadu).  Wikipedia gives more interesting details about this town!

This post is about the present Collector of Perambalur, Darez Ahmed, who is making a difference here, particularly for the upliftment of girl children and women.  Let me write in detail about his amazing work. Now, to the Vikatan article:

Normally, school children and teachers get tensed up when they come to know that their area Collector will be visiting them soon.  It is the opposite here...all of them are happy to receive him.

Darez Ahmed, took the post of the Collector of Perambalur 4 years back.  He was not acting like a man with a prestigious post but was mingling with people and children like an ordinary person.  He roams all over the villages and talks to people like a family member.  Everybody loves him.  You can notice it from the pictures below.

Hearing about the award for their Collector, the whole Perambalur is happy and celebrating.

His office has stopped more than 450 child marriages of all religions.  He stopped a marriage of a particular religion and faced the wrath of their people from the whole of Tamilnadu.  Still, he was firm on his stand and said that every child should be married only after they reach the marriageable age. 
After stopping the child marriages, he made the girl children to study further and some are doing their engineering/medical courses now.  He arranged for their stay in the schools and colleges from the Govt. fund.


The Collector participated in the recently held Perambalur marathon titled, 'Run to protect girls'
He is one among them.
He has started a programme now, called 'Super 30', through which children who are good in their studies in Govt. schools, are selected and makes the teachers to coach them to compete in the entrance exams to join medical and engineering colleges.  At present, more than 300 children are being coached here.  He has warned the errant teachers to work sincerely and so, the admission in govt. schools is increasing around 26% every year. He has started grading the schools according to their performance and sometimes visits them and takes classes to check the standard of teaching in the particular school.  This programme is called 'sigaram' means 'peak'.  He insists the villagers to send their children to aanganwaadis so that they have good, healthy food.

He has made arrangements to offer loans (education loan) for the children doing their higher studies from his district.  More than 10,000 students have availed this facility until now.

He has helped the cotton growing farmers to get good rates for their produce.  He gives priority to the problems of the local farmers.

People seem to be very comfortable with him and he, with them.
He has helped many children who have got serious problems with his own money for special treatments.  He is a down to earth person.  Travels in buses, auto rickshaws etc. to mingle with the locals.

He has arranged for the annual book fare in his district which is praised by the locals.   

He had been receiving accolades for the past 3 years, like 'Best Collector' award, award for helping 'special children'  from our earlier Chief Minister. 

Now, he has received the Prime Minister's award for 'Excellence in Public Administration'.  But he says that 'his officers followed his orders sincerely and so the acknowledgement goes to them too'.

Let us congratulate him and look forward to many more acknowledgements for his sincere work.

I felt so happy while writing this positive post. We need more people like him in the future. Hope many people read this post and know about him. Our whole country needs a good leader like him. I am a dreamer, you know!


P.S.: Sathyarthi is an Indian children's advocate and an activist against child labour.  He was awarded 2014's Nobel peace prize.

I had written about one more sincere Collector here. Have a look please.



Edited to add on 24.4.2015: I came across this news about the Collector now, thanks to the 'Frontline' magazine. He is a Medical graduate. The article says explains how his department stopped child marriages and later helped the girls to do higher studies.  Interesting article.  It also says:

Recalling the fight against child marriage in Perambalur, Dr Ahmed told Frontline that it all began after he read the magazine’s Cover Story essay by the Nobel laureate Amartya Sen titled “Many faces of gender inequality” (Frontline, November 9, 2001). The seven types of anti-female bias mentioned in the essay, which talked about 100 million missing women, triggered the Collector’s initiative.



27 comments :

Jeevan said...

I too read this news and was happy for him as I have read about his good deeds done to the district, long back in facebook! His attitudes truly amaze me... we have seen such collectors characters only in movies, great to see someone in real. I too find there aren’t many articles on him and glad that u decided to write.

Sandhya said...

JEEVAN: I was really upset when I didn't find any other article about him or his picture in the net. So, got the picture from Ananda Vikatan and I want everybody to know about him. Our Tamilnadu is lucky to have him.

Thanks Jeevan!

SG said...

Politicians don't like this. He will be transferred soon. That is the fate of Tamilnadu/India.

Destination Infinity said...

Good news. An example like this will create a ripple effect in other districts. At least let us hope so. Kudos to his commitment!

Destination Infinity

Sandhya said...

SG: He is in the same place for the past 4 years, SG! The local people love him. Unlike Sagayam, his work doesn't affect the mafias directly. Sagayam is another great personality. No other details are available in the net about Perambalur Collector. Sathyarthi had faced slot of problems, I remembered now, so I included a couple of words to the title...Sathyarthi 'in the making'. Hope he continues his sincere work for many more years.


DESTINATION INFINITY: Yes, D.I.




Zephyr said...

Anyone who goes against their own community face even more trouble and it is commendable that he has stood up to it and doing good work. Satyarthi was a social worker and Darez Ahmed is a civil servant so has more powers to bring about change in the society. I would rather compare him to another great collector of TN, Sheela Rani Chunkat. Remember her, Sandhya? The lady who had motivated the entire district of Pudukkottai by teaching women to cycle. Proud to be an Indian today that such bureaucrats still exist and even more proud that their work is getting recognition from the Central Government!

Rachna said...

Loved this one, Sandhya. So good to read about this wonderful man.

Sandhya said...

ZEPHYR: Yes, I remember Sheila rani Chunkat. She is a great personality.

I am not able to find any other details about Darez Ahmed anywhere...about his education, family etc. Thank god, Ananda Vikatan has covered his story. It is a more than 100 year old magazine and has got a lot of respect. Still, the English magazine, Hindu has given just a small paragraph for him, saying that he is receiving PM's award. But I think he is not into publicity. He is concerned with his people. Jayalalitha also has honoured him, I think, last year. Hereafter, I will look out for news about him and include here!

I would like 'The Better India' link to include his name so that the news will reach to a larger readers. People like him will influence others to follow him. Thanks Zephyr!


RACHNA: Again I want to say that many people should know about him! Don't you agree, Rachna?




Sandhya said...

ZEPHYR: I compared Darez Ahmed with Sathyarthi because both of them are striving for girl child welfare. Did you read the Vikatan link I have given? It is nice. Please read. It is in Tamil, though. Others can't read.

KParthasarathi said...

A heart warming post on a collector with a mission.Such people should serve as role models for others to emulate.If only the steel frame is occupied by such dedicated officers,India would forge ahead in all respects.

Krishna/കൃഷ്ണ said...

Happy to read this good news. People of Perambalur are lucky to get this good person.

Thanks sharing this article

Onkar said...

Well done. We are proud of such people.

Sandhya said...

K PARTHASARATHY: You need guts to stop child marriage and he has stopped so many marriages. And he has helped in the education also. He is the 'real human being'. Well, he has got the position but to implement these kinds of reforms, he has to be very dedicated in his work. As you say, 'he is a Collector with a mission'!


KRISHNA: Yes, Krishna!


ONKAR: Yes, we should be!

Rama Ananth said...

It was good to read about him and his achievements. We need more and more people like him to serve our nation, instead of people just shedding crocodile tears. Thanks for sharing this wonderful post.

sm said...

its good he stopped the child marriages without fearing society as our lawmakers are afraid to make strict laws to stop this

Rahul Bhatia said...

This was really inspiring and it is because of people like him the world still has faith in goodness, Sandhya

Sandhya said...

RAMA ANANTH: Thank you, Rama!


sm: Our lawmakers are just after making money without any trouble.


RAHUL BHATIA: Yes, Rahulji!

Renu said...

Thanks Sandhya for sharing this info..I didnt know this..I just hope that his tribe increases, we need many more people like him..

Sandhya said...

RENU: I came to know about him from the Tamil magazine. Later I found out some articles in the net, Hindu articles. But they must have been in some corners in the paper, which are easy to be missed. Negative news are spread over all prominent spaces in newspapers mostly. Even the news of him getting the award was in one corner!

Happy to know that you liked this post, Renu! Many people seem to like this!

eswari said...

eswari: today we really miss our collector sir s presence because of his transfer. all the people felt sad on his transfer. all we missed him like our own family member. i really inspired on that gentle man.there is no words to explain his service for public,that much he supported to girl child and govt students, may god bless him .he is the hero and role model of all the students and youngesters in perambalur. DAREZ AHEMD SIR IS THE REAL HERO OF PERAMBALUR

Sandhya said...

ESWARI: Welcome to my space, Eswari! He is the real Hero of the whole of Tamil nadu and India! We need more leaders like him!

Thanks for the comment, Eswari!

Gowri said...

My role model is hero of all over India.

Sandhya said...

GOWRI: Welcome to my space, Gowri!All of us admire him!

Thanks for the comment!

Manivasagan said...

He is still a HERO for all the school children in the district

Manivasagan said...

Search for "child marriage preamble collector" in google. U can get more info

Sandhya said...

MANIVASAGAN: Welcome to my space, Manivasagan! Is he still the Collector of Perambalur,then you are lucky! Thanks for the comment, Manivasagan!

Unknown said...

I really appreciate him ..........and proud to been the person who survived in Perambalur.......

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