The Hindu : Prince Charles gets a feel of rural Haryana

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Nov 01, 2003

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Prince Charles gets a feel of rural Haryana

By Aarti Dhar

Prince Charles being greeted by an elderly woman when he visited Kutali Gamri village in Karnal, Haryana, on Friday. — Photo: V. Sudershan

KARNAL (Haryana) OCT. 31. Prince Charles of Britain today had a one-to-one session with Parampujya Ma, the spiritual head of Arpana Trust — an inter-faith organisation here — after a hectic tour of Kutail and Gamri villages, where the Trust implements several development projects.

The 40-minute meeting, the organisers said, was to ``seek answers to some spiritual queries''.

Landing at the Haryana Armed Police helipad in the afternoon, the Prince had a feel of rural Haryana when he walked through the dusty, narrow lanes of Gamri, close to Kutail village, acknowledging the greetings of the elderly women and making enquiries about the difference the Trust had made in the village.

Wearing the traditional headdress, he listened patiently to a group of women, members of the self-help groups formed at the behest of the Trust, as they explained that they now had funds available at low interest and did not have to mortgage jewellery.

From a PCO booth to a handicrafts shop, he evinced keen interest in various projects funded by the Trust. He is the patron of the Trust's U.K. branch.

His next stop was the venue of the polio eradication camp, which the Department for International Development (DFID) will start on November 9 when more than 100 million children will be vaccinated in just six days across northern India.

More camps will be launched in January and February to reach 135 million children under five years and eliminate the disease ahead of the global target of 2004-end.

Prince Charles wanted to know how a woman, Saroj, had initiated sheep farming with the help of a loan of Rs. 20,000 given to her by the Trust.

He expressed satisfaction that Ms. Saroj now owned 20 sheep, had repaid the loan and managed to save Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 12,000 annually.

Mingling with children at the `Balwadi Centre', he spent time learning about its working and the needs of the young ones.

Arpana Trust runs a number of health and socio-economic services, helping over 2.5 lakh underprivileged rural people in Haryana, western U.P. and Himachal Pradesh as well as the urban poor in New Delhi.

In 1993, the Trust was awarded the prestigious `Sasakawa Health Prize' by the World Health Organisation.

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Prince Charles gets a feel of rural Haryana