Nitish presents Bihar’s highest edu award to doc-turned-social activist

Dr Jha, who is a paediatrician and retired as a medical officer in 2019, started his inspiring work among Musahar children from one tola and spread it to over 55 tolas involving 5500 children and later set up two schools in the district.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday presented Bihar’s highest award in the field of education, Maulana Abul KalamAzad Shiksha Puruskar, 2021, to Dr Shankar Nath Jha for his distinguished work in the field of education, especially among children of the Musahar community living in Dalit localities of Jamui.

Bihar CM Nitish Kumar presents state’s highest award in the field of education, Maulana Abul KalamAzad Shiksha Puruskar, 2021, to Dr Shankar Nath Jha, in Patna on Thursday. (Santosh Kumar/HT Photo)

Dr Jha, who is a paediatrician and retired as a medical officer in 2019, started his inspiring work among Musahar children from one tola and spread it to over 55 tolas involving 5500 children and later set up two schools in the district. Apart from education, he also motivated children to participate in sports, which resulted in five of them playing at the national level and 25 getting government jobs on sports quota.

A social activist, he also worked to prevent child marriages and child labour. According to the citation, he prevented 450 child marriages and got 950 child labourers admitted to schools. Besides, he kept 850 children suffering from malnutrition under his care so that they could regain their health and pursue education. Many of the Musahar children went on to complete their higher secondary and graduation.

Maulana Abul KalamAzad Shiksha Puruskar was instituted in 2007 and carries ₹2.5-lakh prize money. Bihar was the first state to announce the celebration of the birth anniversary of India’s firth Education Minister Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad as Shiksha Diwas in 2006. From 2007, the government instituted the award to recognize the significant contributions being made in the field of education.

“The contribution of Maulana Azad is huge. He was also the Congress president. He was the one who exhorted minorities not to leave India when the situation due to partition had turned very difficult. We wanted his birthday to be celebrated at the national level and we also wrote to the Centre in this regard. The Centre accepted it and from 2008 it is being celebrated at the national level on Maulana Azad’s birth anniversary,” said the CM, while talking to reporters after the brief function.

Kumar said that the Shiksha Diwas function was usually a big event, but it had been scaled down due to Covid. With the Covid situation improving and things under control in the state, it will again get back to its old scale and grandeur. The objective behind this function is to let the younger generation know about the life and work of Maulana Azad,” he added.

Apart from the CM, education minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary, health minister Mangal Pandey, chief secretary Tripurari Sharan, additional chief secretary (education) Sanjay Kumar and a host of others participated in the event.