Page 225 - SocialHarmony

Poor Welfare Fair: Service to Humanity 229

To realize such dreams, the concept of poor welfare fairs has
been mooted, and the whole of Gujarat Government, together
with its council of ministers, is in your service. This welfare fair
is a place to eradicate commission agents and middlemen. Today
I beg of you that you will not give even a single paise to any
middleman despite all kinds of pressures. You need not worry
about anything, I stand by your side; all this is yours. I have to
protect entire Gujarat from these pickpockets. I am here in the
capacity of the watchman, and if we resolve that we have to
bring the poor out of poverty, we can certainly succeed despite
all the problems that we might face. We can certainly conquer
over poverty. We will work hard if we have to. Nobody was
born with this terrible fortune, it is not necessary that a man
who takes birth in poverty will die in poverty too.

I have to transform the life of poor people, I have to bring
about a change in it. As a system to bring about this
transformation, we have to give poor people houses to live,
means to earn and an opportunity to live a dignified life.
Whatever a poor man produces, he should get a market for it,
his goods should be advertised, his goods should be branded,
and a website should be created for this. Just think that this
government of Gujarat has taken up the cudgels on behalf of
the poor people, and the poor welfare fair is just a form of it.

When I was coming to attend this poor welfare fair, the
poor inhabitants of this place were singing a folksong. On
listening to it, I felt that it was the spirit, the soul of the poor
welfare fair. The part of the song that I could remember, I would
like to quote: “Let us move on, let us bring about a new change;
yes, new change, new transformation, just hold hands together
and bring a new change. There should not be any middlemen,
extend your hands, extend your hands, let us bring a new
change; we don’t have to remain poor any more, we have to
pass the message to each house, we have not to remain poor
anymore.” These are parts of the song; this song is replete in
exalted sentiments. These poor families have sung this song,
and I now feel that my arrival among them has become
meaningful.