Devendra Prasad Singh

Founder

Devendra Prasad Singh is the founder of Bhartiya Jan Utthan Parishad (1983)[1], an Indian non-profit working on education, women & children and water & sanitation from Patna.

Devendra Prasad Singh (19 December 1956 – 26 July 2000) was an Indian social worker from Nalanda district in Bihar and the founder of Bhartiya Jan Utthan Parishad (BJUP), a voluntary organisation working with poor and socially excluded communities in Bihar and Jharkhand. He died on 26 July 2000.

He proposed the formation of the organisation in 1983, together with other social workers, and BJUP was registered on 13 August 1986. The organisation works on child protection and education, health and sanitation, livelihoods and skills, women's empowerment and natural resource management.

Early life and education

Singh was born on 19 December 1956 in Ghosrawan village in the Giriyak block of Nalanda district, Bihar. He was the eldest child of Natho Singh, a participant in the Indian independence movement, and was educated at a village government school.

Career

Active in social and political work from a young age, Singh brought together like-minded people in 1983 to form a body for the development of poor and marginalised communities; this became Bhartiya Jan Utthan Parishad, registered in 1986. He argued for a holistic rather than piecemeal approach to rural development, and campaigned in particular for the renovation of Bihar's traditional ahar and pyne irrigation channels, so as to secure water for agriculture and to generate local employment.

He served as a director of Nalanda Gramin Bank from 1984 to 1991, and as secretary of the Nalanda District Literacy Committee from July 1998 to July 2000.

According to BJUP, he was killed by criminals on 26 July 2000 while returning from a literacy programme. The organisation holds a gathering each year on the anniversary of his death.

Recognition

Singh received the Fr. James Tong Memorial Award from the Bihar Voluntary Health Association in 1997–98 and the Global March Award, presented by Kailash Satyarthi as international coordinator of the Global March Against Child Labour, in 1998. He was given the Man of Achievement Award by I.P.H., New Delhi, in 1999, the Gem of India Award and the Achiever of the Millennium Award by the All India Achievers Conference in 2000, and the Bharat Gaurav Award by the India International Friendship Society, Delhi, in 2000. The Satish Chandra Environment Award was conferred on him posthumously by Gram Niyojan Kendra, Ghaziabad, in 2001.

BJUP itself was recognised by the District Magistrate of Nalanda for its work in communal harmony, the Rajgir Mahotsav and social service.[2][3]

Bhartiya Jan Utthan Parishad

Bhartiya Jan Utthan Parishad (BJUP) has worked since 1983 from its base in Patna to address poverty, discrimination, and lack of access to education and healthcare. Its programs span child protection and education, health and WASH, livelihood and skill development, women's empowerment, and natural resource management.

Bhartiya Jan Utthan Parishad reports the following, on its own site: