Retired school teacher Lobin Sabar has been giving free education to the children of primitive tribes in his village Sohda Sabar under Musabani Block of East Singhbhum. With an intention to create children's interest towards education, initially he started to provide free basic education to the two neighborhood children at his home but gradually the strength went up to 36, they were coming from all across the village. According to Sabar, when he returned to his village after retirement, he found that people were not aware of the importance of education due to which they did not care about getting their children educated.
But, in the last nine months, things have changed and more and more people are requesting him to educate their children. "When I returned to the village after retirement in February this year, I observed that in spite of going to school, children in the village were busy playing on the streets and parents also were least concerned about it," said Sabar. When asked by the parents, they said that what their children will do by going to the schools if they have to do become farmers in future, he added. "I was really shocked to hear the answer and decided to do something for the community I somehow succeeded in convincing parents of the two children in his neighbourhoods and started giving basic education to them. Initially, no one paid heed to it but gradually others also started turning up with their children after watching the improvement in the two children with whom I started with," said Sabar.
Now, he has 34 children in his class, who are regularly coming to his class from 8-10 am, he added. According to Sabar, it gives him immense satisfaction to him as he also has gone through similar hardship and even had to work as a daily wage labourer to pay his college fees. Somehow, hard work paid dividends and Sabar got the job of a teacher in Scheduled Tribe Residential Girls High School in Chaibasa, he added. "As I have seen very bad days during my childhood, I did not want children of my village to face similar circumstances and therefore, I decided to pay back to the society what I received from it by giving free education to the children of my village," said the retired school teacher. He is also getting support from his niece Nilima Sabar who is pursuing her B.Ed. and helping him out in conducting the classes, he added.
Sabar said that initially he had to spend money from his savings to provide reading materials to the children, but now people are coming forward in his support. "Today also, Mukhia Sukurmani Hembrom visited my place and provided some teaching materials for the class. Local public representatives praised his efforts of lightening the lamp of education among the children of primitive tribes, who otherwise would have lost track due to lack of resources and awareness. "Lobin Sabar has succeeded in igniting interest towards education among the children and also creating awareness among their parents. Not only of Sabar community, but other children are also coming to his class," said the Mukhiya. As he is committed towards improving condition of children of his community, he is educating children free of cost spending money from his own savings, she added.
