The Chesire Home At Ranchi
By
Yashovardhan Sinha
The good is often ignored in preference to the bad and the ugly. Perhaps this explains why so little is known about the Cheshire Home at Ranchi that my mother and I visited earlier today.
The Ranchi Cheshire Home was set up in 1968 as a rehabilitation and vocational training institute for physically challenged men, women and children irrespective of religion or language.
Besides free board and lodging, inmates are provided education, vocational training and medical treatment. Many inmates of this Home have received college education, taken up jobs and gotten married.
But not everyone can go to college. Others are trained in making exercise books, book-binding, printing, making greeting cards and candle-making etc. The Home has tied up with various schools and offices who buy their products and services.
The Home currently has more than 60 inmates from poor villages around Ranchi. Most inmates are children although there are quite a few middle and old age people as well.
The sisters of Daughters of Charity have taken the responsibility of day-to-day running of the Home which depends on donations from citizens and corporates for its funds. Ranchi’s famous consultancy firm, MECON, took over the overall management of the Home in 1978.
The 4 acre property was gifted by one Mrs Iris Storr, an Irish lady who had settled down in Ranchi and died here. The first Cheshire Home came into existence after World War II.
Group Captain Leonard Cheshire of the Royal Air Force was so moved by the horrors of the nuclear bombing of Nagasaki that he decided to devote his life to setting up homes for the disabled and other victims of war.
The first homes he set up outside England were in India starting with Bombay in 1956. Today there are 23 Cheshire Homes in India, each one independent but linked to each other. And such homes exist in 55 countries.
The photos that I am uploading will give you an idea of what an oasis of beauty and service the Ranchi Cheshire Home is.
