Soulful स्कूल | Session 30 | J K Sinha, IPS (Retd.) - Shoshit Seva Sangh, Bihar

Shri Jyotinivas Kumar Sinha was born on 16th of July, 1945. He did his schooling from St. Xavier’s School, Patna. Thereafter, he joined St. Stephen’s College, Delhi, in 1961 and graduated with History (Honours) in 1964. He did Masters in History from the Delhi University in 1966 and joined the Indian Police Service in 1967. He was allotted the Bihar Cadre but served in his home state for a very short period and went on deputation to the Cabinet Secretariat, Government of India in 1971. During his service with the Cabinet Secretariat he served in India and abroad with great distinction. He was awarded the ‘Indian Police Medal’ for meritorious service in 1987 and the ‘Sarvottam Seva Suraksha Patra’ for distinguished service in 2000. He retired as Special Secretary in 2005.

On retirement he decided to return to his home state and settled in Patna with the sole objective of working for the welfare of the ‘Musahar’ community of Bihar, perhaps, the most downtrodden and poverty stricken community in India. He established ‘Shoshit Seva Sangh’ which runs a fully free English medium residential school in Patna to provide high quality education to the children of the musahar community. The school run by Shoshit Seva Sangh provides not only free education, boarding & lodging but also clothes including uniforms, text-books and stationery, medical-care, toiletries, bedding and bed linen, personal utensils and all other necessities. Musahar children as young as 6-7 years drawn from remote villages of various districts of Bihar are admitted in the Pre-School class and fully supported till they complete higher secondary. Shri Sinha began this with supporting the education of 4-5 musahar children in 2006. In less than a decade he was able to acquire land and build a residential school which can accommodate upto 1000 musahar children. The school building has been constructed as per the guidelines mandated by the Central Board of Secondary Education. It has a highly experienced and qualified teaching faculty. It also has sporting facilities which a school can be proud of. Shoshit Seva Sangh looks after musahar children and provide quality education literally from cradle to adulthood. This indeed is an unique achievement. The school is affiliated to the CBSE upto higher secondary level.

Presently there are over 506 musahar children and the school has started admitting 100 children in the Pre-School class every year. The school built in over 2 acres of land as stipulated by CBSE has all the facilities mandated by it. This institution was built by Shri Sinha with funds raised from individuals and corporates under their CSR programme with single minded devotion. The facilities in the school would compare with quality schools in India. Shri Sinha was given ‘India Positive Award’ sponsored by CNN-IBN in 2012 and figured in the ‘Amazing Indians’ serial telecast by Times Now Channel. He was adjudged as one of the ‘Best Educators’ of India by the jury constituted by Times Now in 2015. He was honoured for his valuable contribution in the field of education and literacy as a ‘Literacy Hero’ in 2013 by Rotary International at the South Asia Literacy Summit. Shri Sinha was awarded the ‘Padma Shri’ by the President of India on the occasion of the Republic Day, 2019, for this outstanding social service.

Some photographs of the life and activities at the school are attached. Shoshit Seva Sangh has a very elaborate website and the address is www.sssfoundation.org.