The lesser known humane side of Sachin Tendulkar

I have been one of those select few who have been restrained in my praise for Sachin 10dulkar throughout his career.  While he has many records to his names, records don’t necessarily speak of a sport person’s commitment to his/her nation. Records coincide with personal milestones and in team sports, if records don’t necessarily translate to success for your team, they hold little significance. So, while we talk about Sachin’s social accomplishments here, we keep his records aside for the sake of this discussion.

What Sachin is definitely commendable for is his humility. One of the biggest Indian sportsperson that he is, distractions are natural. But, he has consistently maintained a gentleman demeanor. His benevolence has been appreciated by new and elder members of the team alike.

So, that is all for what we already know of him. What I have been curious to know however is if he has done anything significant for social cause. Having heard only a little about it, I could only draw either of this as conclusion: 1) He doesn’t contribute to social causes or 2) He contributes but doesn’t make it public. The latter is a true reflection of a social worker – one who contributes without expecting to gain mileage out of it. Lets see what Sachin has to offer to us.

Some research yielded a plethora of his philanthropic activities:

1. Sachin contributed 25 lakhs from sale proceeds from his autobiography. Reference. As per TOI, his mother in law is all praise for Sachin: “Sachin is undoubtedly one of the greatest cricketers of all times, but what is more important to me is he is a fine human being. He was greatly influenced by his father and has grown up with strong family values. He is very much a family man”.
2. Sachin paid the total expense of surgical treatment of Dalbir Singh Gill, a former cricketer who played with him at the under-17 level. Reference.
3. Tendulkar has helped over 300 have-nots so far through the Dr Agarwal Eye Hospital in Chennai since October 2004 to get their cataract and eye grafting operations done. Reference
4. He is instrumental in raising a corpus fund of 1.35 crore in the crusade against cancer in children, which has helped more than 40 children. Reference
5. Sachin contributed to NDTV’s ‘Support My School’ campaign to improve facilities to help children study in a healthy environment. Reference. As per DNA India, he helped raise 7 crore for the initiative.
6. He put his weight behind polio eradication and creating essential awareness for the same. The contributions were free of charge. Reference.
7. He adopted Andhra village named ‘Puttamrajuvari Kandrika’ by allocating 2.79 crore from his MP fund. Reference.
8. Sachin has also contributed to creating ‘road safety’ and ‘clean India’ awareness for SafeRoads and Swach bharath missions respectively.

Clearly, Sachin Tendulkar has been playing his part in helping those who are deprived. His off the field work is also worth making a note of. He also seems to believe in keeping his social welfare work away from public glare, a true sign of a genuinely benevolent person. And my respect for the gentlemen has only grown.

Comments/Feedback invited.

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Last Updated on April 19, 2016 by Go4Reviews