Sikh Channel Aid (SCA) Verified listing

The village Jhangola came to the attention of Sikh Channel on 30 January 2015 upon the news that the entire village had decided to boycott the Delhi assembly elections citing the basic lack of amenities behind their collective move. With an almost exclusively Sikh population of over 10,000 villagers, Jhangola came up as a home for refugees who came to India from Pakistan during the partition. The land was originally allotted to thirty-six Sikh families from Pakistan. The residents of Jhangola were forced to take the step of abstaining from voting due to the severe lack of basic amenities in their area. "Leaders have been coming to us but we decided not to vote for any of them this time." "It is high time now not to vote. They only give fake promises..." said Panja Singh, 62, a resident of Jhangola village that falls under Narela assembly constituency in northwest Delhi. "No hospital, no dispensaries, no post office, no high school…every time they assure that they will do something but nothing to avail so far," said Singh. Another resident Gurmail Singh said: "A government school is located at least seven km away from the village. There are only two primary schools run by the NDMC (North Delhi Municipal Corporation)." "The education status of the village is so low that none of the youngsters get government jobs. The basic occupation of the residents is farming and daily wage labour," said Gurmail Singh, who cleared his class 12 exams last year. Sikh Channel visited the village to report on the election news and were subsequently alarmed by the inhabitable conditions and desperate plight of the villagers. Horror story after horror story detailed the day to day struggle each resident of Jhangola endures despite the village being situated in the nation’s capital state. Lack of health and transport facilities have brought the village to an almost standstill and in extreme cases resulted in babies being stillborn and their mother’s dying. The village has no facilities to cremate dead bodies therefore the deceased are carried over five km by foot to the nearest facilities. Education is almost non-existent with children having to walk almost fifteen km daily to the nearest school. Over fifty years of neglect of this village has culminated in the youth succumbing to alcohol and drug abuse and the lack of teaching of the Sikh faith has resulted in the majority of the younger generations drifting away from Sikhi. In light of these circumstances, the village has been officially adopted under the Sikh Channel Aid banner. Despite the desperate state of the village, the yearning of the youth to learn about their history and steer away from the path to self-destruction is clear and apparent. The villagers of Jhangola need the support of the international community to secure the basic amenities and bring the principles of the Sikh faith back into their lives. Sikh Channel Aid has now taken steps to address poverty in the village, provide education and provision of basic amenities in addition to work on developing innovative and sustainable solutions that enable the individuals and the community to become self-reliant and live with dignit.