Mai Bhago Fauj

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The Mai Bhago Fauj is village action group organized by Col. Gurbirinder Singh Sandhu, a retired Punjabi Colonel .Having taken an early retirement from the Indian army in 1981 to manage personal property assets in Punjab.

The Colonel first gained local notice when he began leading a campaign in October 2003 against the notorious Nihang Ajit Singh Poohla and his goons. Ex-servicemen from the Majha area (where Nihang Poohla was most active) joined him in standing up to Poohla who seemed to have been granted a boon, like someone in the ancient Hindu myths, which rendered him impervious to arrest. Overcoming Nihang Poohla's ties to corrupt police officials, the organization known as the ‘Majha Ex-serviceman Human Rights Front’ was successful in getting Nihang Poohla and eight of his associates jailed on numerous murder charges in August of 2004.

Since then, Col. Sandhu has continued his fight against social injustice, poverty and the drug/AIDS menace, so rampant in rural Punjab.

In January 2005, Col Sandhu started Aapna Punjab, a NGO, to formalize his fight against poverty and social injustice. Under the umbrella of Aapna Punjab, he has started a grass-roots campaign, called the 'Mai Bhago Fauj", with the mission of eradicating the drug and AIDS menace of rural Punjab. Since women (be it the mother, wife, daughter or sister) who suffer the most from this menace, mostly women are enrolled and encouraged to report the existence of drug selling dens, and in the case the police do not act, to ‘ghero’ Police Stations and report the matter to higher authorities. The campaign has taken the name of Mai Bhago the heroine who rallied the 40 men (the Chali Mukte the Fourty Liberated Ones) from the area of Chabbal Village in District Amritsar who had deserted Guru Gobind Singh at a crucial time when he was surrounded by Mughal forces in Anandpur Sahib.

Welfare centers for handicrafts and tailoring are also being setup where village women can make goods for sale and learn such skills. As of August 2005 over ten Welfare Centers are operational with over 500 women enrolled.

Finally, Col Sandhu has gone on to organize and lay the foundation stone of an an English medium school at Village Pahuwind on 27th January 2005, on the birthday of Saheed Baba Deep Singh.

The school became operational in July 2006.