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The Department of Posts will bring out a commemorative postage stamp on Bhagat Puran Singh, as a mark of paying tribute to a great self-regulated person who made service to humanity his routine task; a great man who led an ordinary living in an extraordinary manner. Bhagat Puran Singh succeeded in his mission, born out of his faith in God, of building ‘Pingalwara’ which remains a living memorial of his life’s work. Bhagat Puran Singh established a home for destitute, called Pingalwara in Amritsar. Pingalwara literally meant in several forms such as ‘home for the crippled’, ‘home for the handicapped. The commemorative stamp is in the denomination of rupees five.
Ramji Das, who was re-christened as Puran Singh after he embraced Sikhism in the year 1923, was born on 4th June 1904 in Village Rajewal in Ludhiana. The basic fundamentals of social services to the mankind were taught by his mother, Mehtab Kaur, such as clearing harmful objects like thorns, pieces of broken glass, nails, other sharp objects, stones, bricks and such from the lanes and village tracks as they would injure pedestrians, beasts and passersby. These good qualities formed the foundation of kindness and concern in the young heart of Ramji Das very deeply. He cared for the despairing, disabled and destitute with his own hands. He even sought alms on the streets and outside places of worship, not for himself, but to ask people to help the needy. He had neither grants nor aids, nor any institutions to back him up. Puran Singh looked after for 14 years an abandoned boy, who was dumb, mentally impaired and physically deformed and was suffering from dysentery since at his age of four. Puran Singh named him as Piara and carried on his back wherever he went. Bhagat Puran Singh died on 5th August, 1992 but his magnificent sprit lives on in Pingalwara.
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