Uttam Terron, the lesser-known Guwahatian was in the news recently.  Born in a humble family,  Uttam hails from Pamohi Village of Garchu, a peaceful Karbi village. 

Completing his graduation from a city college he returned to his village. After returning to the village, he started giving tuition and earned  Rs. 800 per month. If he found his income insufficient to meet his needs, he and his friends would cut wood from the forest and sell it to earn additional money.

He was contented and happy with his life. Only one fine day he realised that the days were not sunny for the children of his and other neighbouring villages. The joy and hope were missing in their faces. The reason being that these children were either school dropouts or had never been to school.

Deep in his heart, he felt the need to help these children. He thought of giving them tuitions but money was the greatest challenge. After waiting for two years he constructed a room with a tin roof and bamboo walls in a cowshed and also bought a pair of desk and benches. 

All this was done with the amount of Rs 800 that he had earned. Naming it as Parijat Academy, he started the school with only 4 students. But as most of the villagers were illiterate,  it was not an easy task for Uttam. 

Rather than sending their children to schools, they preferred them to work in the fields. But with passing days, the small room in a cow shed turned into a regular school that provides free education to children from 11 villages of Assam.

Parijat Academy has classes from Nursery to Grade 10 with 512 students and 25 teachers currently. The children gather knowledge in subjects like Assamese, Hindi, English, Maths, Social studies, Environmental Studies, Science, Moral Education, Arts, Recitation and Music. In addition to these they learn sewing (for girls), bamboo craft, garment making, card making, etc. Sports and cultural programs for the children are also organised for their overall growth. 

Parijat Academy at present provides education and hostel facilities to students. The school has a library and gives basic computer education to students. It also arranges health check-up camps. Children of pre-primary level are given milk thrice a week and midday meal is served to all the school children once a month which is arranged by Nita Sairam Parmer, the founder of Lordsai.com.

As Terron believes that education gives true direction, the main objective of the Parijat Academy is to instill the qualities of love, kindness, compassion and universal responsibilities in children through education. Parijat Academy is no longer popular only amongst volunteers from India but overseas too.

These volunteers help the children in different activities like photography, agriculture, health, sports, art and crafts, adventure programme, computer, yoga, etc. The academy receives help from many individuals as well as organisations in cash as well as in kind.

But for Terron, days are getting difficult,  as even after 16 years fundraising is still a big problem. Due to the lack of fund, teachers are not paid salary for 3-4 months.