Bibi Dr. Inderjeet Kaur (Born January 25, 1942) who is the head of the Pingalwara organisation is the daughter of Dr. Harbans Singh. She earned her Academic F.Sc. (Medical), in 1959 and her Professional M.B.B.S. from the Govt. Medical College of Patiala, Punjab, in 1967. Dr. Inderjeet Kaur worked as a P.C.M.S. Doctor under the control of the Directorate of Health Services, Punjab from 1967 to 1973 and has run her own private nursing /maternity home in in Sangrur, Punjab since 1973. Pingalwara was the name given to a humble house for the destitute in Amritsar in northern Indian state of Punjab. In the early 1900’s, it was an original idea of the founder, Bhagat Puran Singh to catered for the people who had been rejected by society. It was an ad-hoc facility for the disabled; the mentally ill; the dispossessed; generally for people who were no longer accepted by anyone in society. Bhagat Puran Singh built this institute literally single-handed with the ideals of his mother as his driving force; the message of Gurbani as a beckon and the generosity of the Punjabi society as his safety net and hunting ground. Today, the Pingalwara complex is housed in a three storey building near the main Amritsar bus stand on the National Highway no. 1, also known as G.T. or Grand Trunk Road. Currently Pingalwara has facilities for 400 “patients” who are fed, housed and looked after thanks to generous support of various philanthropists. Pingalwara is officially registered as All India Pingalwara Charitable Society. Since the death of its founder, Bhagat Puran Singh in 1992, it is headed by Bibi Dr. Inderjit Kaur who is a physician by training and also runs a private maternity clinic in Amritsar. She is a professional Member of the Indian Medical Association and has served as the Vice President of the ‘All India Pingalwara Society of Amritsar, from 1988-1992 working with Bhagat Puran Singh. Upon the death of Bhagat Puran Singh Dr. Inderjeet Kaur became the President of the Pingalwara Society in 1992. On January 25, 2008, she was awarded the ‘Padma Bhushan’, the country’s third highest civilian award, in recognition of her social service. In December 2008, she was honoured by the National Commission of Minorities, for her grass root efforts to promote the rights of minorities and communal harmony in India. The word Pingalwara means a house or asylum for the disabled, handicapped or crippled. Ramji Das, who, for fourteen long years, carried a handicapped child on his shoulders as they had no place to stay later became known as Bhagat Puran Singh, after becoming a Sikh. He started the Pingalwara Society which has become a household name among Sikhs because of the extraordinary humanitarian work of the man who began collecting the deserted and downtrodden of society more than 80 years ago.
