J N Kaul passes away
A sturdy voice of needy children in India had fallen silent forever on December 16, 2008. Shri Jagan Nath Kaul, Papaji for hundreds of children left for heavenly abode. He was the founder member and Patron for Life Picture: J N Kaul with Indira Gandhi 1973 of SOS Children’s Villages of India. He worked a lot for the cause of displaced Kashmiri Pandits.
A visionary and an institution-builder J N Kaul always stood for the cause of needy.
He breathed his last in the Escorts Fortis hospital in Faridabad after the prolonged illness.
J.N. Kaul dedicated his life for the sake of children and started a movement when he established the first SOS Children’s Village at Greenfield in Faridabad in 1964 with the active support of the then prime minister Indira Gandhi. Dr. Hermann Gmeiner, his friend and founder of SOS-Kinderdorf International, carried a unique childcare concept along with him when he was visiting India in 1963. J N Kaul found the long-term support idea wonderful and put this before the friends and like-minded people of India. The response was tremendous and today there are 31 SOS Children’s Villages and more than 75 allied projects supporting thousands of needy children.
He never used the word Orphan for a child and made sure that a child when comes ‘home’ at SOS Children’s Village he/she must grow with love, security and respect which eventually had become the guiding principle for the organisation. He maintained, “by bringing home a child, we reaffirm our faith in life and the basic goodness of mankind.”
Whenever he heard about a child is in danger he tried hard to reach. He contributed the society in many ways and guided the state and voluntary organisations by his ideas and experiences. The government of India recognized his unflinching zeal to serve needy children and conferred one of the biggest civilian honours on him -Padma Shree in 2000.
SOS-Kinderdorf International, the umbrella organisation of the SOS Children’s Villages worldwide made him honorary member the first one from Asia in year 2005.
He had been associated with various government and voluntary agencies engaged in childcare such as Member of Expert Committee for Care and Rehabilitation of Destitute Children, member of Executive Committee, Indian Council for Child Welfare, Vice President of Association for Social Health in India, President of Defense for Children International in India, President of Kashmiri Sevak Samaj, Faridabad and KECSS-Delhi and also member of Rehabilitation Council for Militancy Victims in Kashmir.
He received the greatest award in form of ‘Papaji’- all children and co-workers lovingly call him so. One of the youths who grew in SOS Children’s Village Greenfields recalled, J N Kaul, ” He always had the time for tiny details such as whether we had the pens, books or what was on the menu at lunch, a terrific human-being. I lost my father”
J.N. Kaul was recipient of many awards and honours including the Raja Rammohan Roy Teacher’s Award, the G.D. Birla Award, the Rajiv Gandhi Manav Seva Award, the Twentieth Century Achievement Award (awarded by the American Biographical Institute USA), the Dadabhai Naroji New Millennium Award, the Satpal Mittal National Award and the Vayoshrestha Award by the Ministry of Social Justice.
Shri J. N. Kaul is survived by his wife Indira, son, three daughters and grand children. Born on October 13, 1924 in Srinagar, he had his early education in Srinagar followed by Universities in Punjab, Rajasthan and Delhi. He was one of the earliest Fulbright scholars from India.