May Day, that celebrates the dignity of labour, turned out to be a unique occasion this year for the residents of the nondescript Naya Barkheda village in Bharatpur district of Rajasthan.
In their midst was a group of young students from a far-off land playing the role of labourers for the construction of low-cost houses for two poor families.
Houses for BPL families
This is the third group of students from a West Asian country taking part in the house construction, initiated the Habitat for Humanity-India in association with the Lupin Human Welfare and Research Foundation, as a philanthropic gesture.
The Habitat for Humanity-India recently sanctioned loans on easy terms for the construction of over 250 brick houses for below the poverty line families living in huts and mud structures in Bharatpur district. The Lupin Foundation selected two beneficiaries, Devi Singh and Karan Raibari, in Naya Barkheda village.
Manual labour
The group of 12 students from Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, had arrived at Naya Barkheda to lend a helping hand. Braving the scorching heat, the youngsters were seen carrying bricks and stones to the construction site, digging the earth, preparing cement and building material, helping the masons and assisting the labourers.
Lupin Foundation executive director Sita Ram Gupta said here that May Day had added a “distinctive feature” to the philanthropic gesture of the students, who had won the hearts of the villagers.
The youngsters work at Naya Barkheda the entire day and return to Bharatpur district headquarter every evening. The team is likely to complete the work assigned to it by this weekend. They are students of Aliha School in Dhahran, situated in Ash-Sharqiyah province of Saudi Arabia.
Lesson for students
Mr. Gupta said the students had also learnt about the challenges of poverty and deprivation through their exposure to this largely backward rural terrain.
Earlier, two groups of girls from the Sharjah Women's College and the American College, Dubai — both in the United Arab Emirates — had visited Nagla Ghasola and Dharampura villages in Sewar panchayat samiti in March this year to take part in this humanitarian act.
