Maj Gen S K Sharma
Senior citizens all over the world are respected for their efforts for their families and society. Most of them have sacrificed their comforts to make sure that their children study in good schools and get satisfying jobs.
21 Aug is celebrated all over the world as World Senior Citizens Day to recognize their efforts and salute to their dedication for making the world reach where we are.
A few super-dedicated senior citizens, even at this stage, form clubs and dedicate their balance of life for the welfare of society. Examples of such types of clubs are innumerous, however, I’ll give you a glimpse of one such club in Jammu which is still solving the challenges faced by society.

world senior citizen day

It is Senior Citizens Service Support Club, Chowadi at Jammu. It was formed during 2019 to provide services to the infirm and poor old people. Its formal membership commenced in Oct 2022 after which a proper Management Committee formed headed by Dr. Kasturi Lal. Ashok Gupta, former Drug Controller was elected as its President whereas the author of this write up as General Secretary to run its day-day activities.
Glimpse of a few of activities are as under:
Honouring Social Workers
In a glittering function, the club honoured those senior citizens who have provided life-time support to society in different ways. The honour was received by two activists viz. Er. Vijay Bagotra, General Secretary, Home for Aged and |Infirm, Ambphalla and O.P.Sharma, veteran journalist. They were felicitated with a shawl as a token of their life-time services.
Challenges by the Society
The locals from Jammu province approached the club and apprised them of the biggest cultural challenge faced by way of continuous decline of the Dogra culture. The club assured them of taking the matter to the highest level in the govt and assured them of its positive solution.
Carried out Detailed Research
The club carried out detailed research on the problems of the society and found the following root causes behind it:
a. Reign of Anti-Dogra Ruler: During 1947, when Sheikh Abdullah, an anti-Dogra leader, became Prime Minister of J&K, he sidelined Dogri, the official language of the state and made Urdu the State language. Secondly, he got Urdu and Kashmiri languages included in the 8th Schedule of the Constitution of India. Dogri was not given any place in it.
b. Negative Narrative About Dogras: A very derogative narrative got circulated in the society that Dogras are dungers (animals), backward and illiterate. This resulted in even the local Dogras shunning Dogri language and accepting Urdu to prove them otherwise. They also disallowed their children to study Dogri language as a subject in the schools.
c. Govt Stopped Publishing Dogri Books: In J&K, the textbooks of all the subjects are given free in govt schools. However, for Dogri subject they have stopped publishing books from class 3 onwards forcing students to study Urdu or other languages but not Dogri.
d. Govt did not fill posts of Dogri teachers in schools: This led to non-teaching of Dogri in many schools.
e. No Satellite Channel: No dedicated satellite channel was allotted for the Dugger community.
Promotion of Dogri Artists
The club started promoting Dogri artists at their premises by asking them to perform Dogri dramas, nataks, in front of large gatherings. Thus, the funds generated from this were given to the artists to help them financially. Dogri plays like Shah-Shaani, Dhanvantari etc. have already been performed in the club.
Sponsoring Kavi Ghoshti
They also sponsored Dogri Kavi Ghoshti to promote Dogri. For this, they took the help of Viraj Kala Kendra and University of Jammu.
Dogri Nibhand Pratiyogita
In the schools of Jammu, they started organizing Dogri essay competition in which students are to speak in Dogri language on any topic of Dogra culture, tradition and history. This activity has spread in Jammu city like wildfire.
When 15-20 students speak in Dogri in front of 70-100 students of a school, it motivates every student in the audience to speak in Dogri. Besides this, the minor stories of the Dogra culture, tradition and history also become known to all the students who sit in the audience.
To date, 10 schools in Jammu region have been covered. These include RM Public School, Modern Public High School, Shiksha Niketan Sr. Secondary School, ASN Higher Secondary School, Naveen Shiksha Kendra High School, J.S.Luthra Academy, Himmat Learning Field Hr. Secondary School and Govt. High School Gharattal.
Financial Encouragement to Students
All the students who participate in Dogri Nibhand Pratiyogita are provided with certificates of participation. Besides this, the student who tops the competition in a school is given prize money of Rs. 1,000 each.
These competitions will continue till Nov 2024 and the final competition among the winners will be conducted at the club premises. Students who secure first, second and 3rd positions in that competition will be awarded Rs. 5,100, Rs. 3,100 and Rs. 2,100 respectively.
Providing Free Dogri Textbooks
From the meagre savings of the members of the club, they have purchased hundreds of textbooks of Dogri for distribution to schools who feel financial crunch
Apprising Govt. on Dogri Decline
The officials of the club met Manoj Sinha, Hon’ble Lt Governor J&K, Rajiv Bhatnagar, Advisor to LG, Piyush Singla, IAS, the then Secretary School Depart, Govt of J&K and submitted proposals to them. Full factual details were provided to them.
Team also met Prof. Parikshit Manhas, Chairman JK BOSE and Director JK SCERT, Sh. Rajesh Mangotra, JKAS, Project Director Samagra Shiksha, J&K.
The team met Sanjiv Verma, IAS, Principal Secretary, General Administration Dept and submitted a proposal giving details of province and district level posts for which knowledge of Dogri should be made mandatory. Amendment to Rules was suggested to be done to include this provision.
Awareness Campaign through Media
Club members have been keeping the Dogra community apprised of the happenings within society. The lackadaisical attitude of the govt of J&K has been exposed by means of print media as well as on television.
Articles like “Is Dogra culture Dying Slowly” dated 15 Feb 2024, “Are the schools in Jammu not to Implement NEP 2020?” dated 10 Apr 2024, “When parents select schools not teaching Dogri” dated 20 May 2024, “Signature Campaigns by Dogra Organizations” dated 13 July 2024, and “Is Death of Dogra Culture Eminent” dated 12 Aug 2024, have been published in Daily Excelsior.
Besides the above, detailed interviews of their members on step-motherly treatment to Dogra culture have been aired through JKNEWS 24×7, Gulistan TV and Door Darshan during Jan-July 2024. Press conferences have also been conducted on these issues to spread the message through all types of media.
Outcome of Efforts of Club
Efforts of the club were well taken seriously by the Govt officials, and they took prompt action and constituted the following committees:
1. Committee to see implementation of National Education Policy-2020 in schools which directs J&K Govt. to teach first 5 classes in schools in mother tongue, Dogri in case of Jammu province.
2. Constituted a committee to make State Curriculum Framework (JK SCF) for all the classes in schools and indicate the periods allotted to various subjects including Dogri for classes 1 to 12.
3. The composition of the Committee to revise Recruitment Rules was reconstituted and asked to frame recruitment rules afresh.
Salute to the Sr. Citizen Clubs
Example of a sample Sr. Citizen Club given above makes all the youngsters bow down and salute to the senior citizens of the country who, in spite of their weak physical health and advancing age are still running around and solving problems faced by the society.
(The author is Board Member, Dogra Organizations Group for Responsive Action (DOGRA) and former Board Member, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board)

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