Girish Pant

(Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Awardee 2019-UAE)

 

Meet the unsung hero, a man who took upon himself to dedicate his efforts to humanity, a pride of the nation & India itself. India News and some other media houses in India, call him “Bajrangi Bhaijaan”. Girish Pant belongs to the Pithoragarh district of the state Uttarkhand in India. A PGDBA (Finance) Graduate in academia, his philosophy is “Nation First, Service Humanity”.

A man who has made a steep climb struggle in cause of humanity, against all odd & challenges of life, systems, situation, bureaucracy; & non-stop efforts. Girish has been recognized & awarded at several occasion from various landmark views, maintaining his humbleness & unlike many other he never took his achievements to his ego. 34 recognitions so far (as below) & still counting, because Girish did not stop, he didn’t get tired, he did not give up his determination. For his endless efforts; it was 2019 when his was presented by the highest Civil Award “Pravasi Bharatiya Samman” awarded by the President of India.

Who says that only the team sitting in the ATC (Air Traffic Control) can lead to a successful communication for a safe landing of passengers to ensure they safely reunite with loved ones, well here we share a story of a super hero who with his dedication and passion to help people reunited more than 1000 students stranded in Ukraine went out of his way operating with several different touch points from his base in Dubai.

Girish Pant has proved that distance of 5000KMS was not a show stopper for him, with limited resources but unlimited passion, he planned the evacuation of helpless students during Russian – Ukraine war through a group on WhatsApp in coordination with External Affairs and Embassy where he pro actively guided distressed students on how to plan, he operated several hours during the day and worked through the night ensuring the time difference was never a reason for him not to be available for anyone in need.

Since Covid-19 Pandemic caused great distress to people across the globe, Mr. Girish Pant assisted people in locating their ill friends and relatives in hospitals. His help to the Indian Consulate in Dubai in repatriating over more than 80 – 90 Non-covid patient human remains have been sent to respective state of their home country and more than 400 to 500 Covid patients and Non-covid patients mortals were terminated with the help of the local authority in Dubai and sent to India stands noteworthy.

He made enormous efforts in this regard, by visiting police stations, hospitals and mortuaries almost on a daily basis. He arranged food and medicines for the needy and identified those most in need for repatriation on VBM and chartered flights. He also connected a large number of Indians with the hospital authorities and gave solace to many others on phone. Mr. Pant is the Board Member of the Hindu Cremation Ground, Dubai.

Some of the important humanitarian services rendered by him are:

  • Helped hundreds of Indians during Covid-19 in co-ordination with Consulate General of India, Dubai.

  • He is a Messiah to the seafarers and has helped hundreds of seafarers in distress through counseling, providing food, connecting with their families and above all liaising with the local government authorities and the Indian Missions to raise their issues.
  • He has done this work not only for those facing problems in UAE but also in other countries such as Iran and Yemen.
  • He has helped in repatriation of 5000+ seafarers, laborers who have overstayed and people facing other problems such as loss of jobs, accidents He has done this for people of different nationalities (Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Russia, Uzbekistan, Philippines, Bangladeshi, Nigeria, Sudan, Nepal and other GCC & Middle East country etc).
  • Played an instrumental role in sending mortal remains from UAE back to home in India in various death and suicide cases. In a few cases, he has accompanied the mortal remains to hand them over to families in India.
  • He has helped to save many starving workers with the involvement of the local authorities and Government of India. Often at odd hours he goes himself to give food to workers who are facing difficulties. In one instance, for example, he went and gave solace to abandoned laborers who had to live inside a bus on the outskirts of Oman Border.
  • Since he is a prominent Social Worker of the UAE and is well known in India, he received several calls from India to help migrant workers during Covid-19 pandemic restrictions in India. He arranged safe passage of nearly 24 workers from Ahmedabad to Uttarakhand and helped whenever and wherever has been possible to help his countrymen in distress.
  • Girish attributes all his philanthropic acts to the people and the charm of his village, his upbringing and God’s will. His humanitarian work was recognized when he was called for a panel discussion by Minister of External Affairs Late Smt. Sushma Swaraj, Government of India on the work of Indian community organizations for distressed Indians abroad.
  • He was the “President of the Dubai Chapter of Indian Peoples Forum” and also”President of Labour Welfare and Council Affairs of Indian People Forum in UAE” and in this capacity organized various socio-cultural programs for the Indian community. Yoga and Hindi have been of particular interest to him. He has played important role in mobilizing participation in the International Day of Yoga programs in Dubai and the Northern Emirates of UAE. For Hindi, Girish and other IPF volunteers have organized annual Hindi-Utsav in various schools in UAE.
  • He also has exceptional organizing capabilities and has been in the forefront of getting the Indian community together for the visits of various Indian Ministers and dignitaries to UAE.

Society – He strive to make it better, is the philosophy of his life.

Ethos of Life...

  • He provide mental health counseling to weak individuals.and help people cope and fight with the challenges in various situations of their lives.
  • There’s a strong desire inside him to work for the country. He gives proper advice and counsel to help the clients in fighting for their own rights.
  • Helping the young citizens to accomplish their goals help people in identifying and solve problems of their lives.
  • No act of kindness can be considered as a small task to him.
  • He love to help others in the challenging moments of their lives and believes that Civilization is the process of respecting yourself as well as others.
  • He can give people strong counseling to make then strong enough to survive through many cruel situations.
  • Always eager to help the society in becoming equal for each and every citizen of our country. He know the real dignity and worth of human life.
  • He strive to get social justice for every people of our society help the women to stand with confidence in front of many abuses of the society.

Impact on People...

  • Promoting Indian and UAE art culture under the platform of arts & Crafts as a co-founder and patron.
  • Policy have been implemented for sea-fearers
  • Many fraud agencies licenses have been cancelled.
  • He has helped people languishing in UAE jails due to trivial issues like dispute with their employers and helped them resolve their issues through mutual understanding.
  • Women coming in UAE in many cases fall prey by Indian agents to human trafficking. He has helped many such women to be rescued by co-ordinating with local authorities and repatriate those stranded in UAE back to their homes but also in other countries (Tunisia Malaysia, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait).
  • He has played an important role in helping several hundred blue collar workers to submit proper documentation in getting their fines waived off by local governmental authorities of their full support and has ensured that the workers are properly repatriated back to India legally.
  • During covid times, he was the president for Indian People’s Forum has sent more than 6 chartered flights to different states of India and rescued more than thousands of blue collar workers who doesn’t have proper passport and other legal documents.
  • Not only that he also acted as a forefront warrior during vandhe Bharat Mission along with Dubai consulate and other officials at the airport.

Presently Holding the Position: –

  1. Volunteer Committee In-charge for Overstay & Seafarers -Consulate General of India, Dubai, UAE
  2. Advisor – Rescue Every Distressed Indian Overseas (REDIO), UAE
  3. MENA Advisor – Rootskills – Sustainable Development & Environment Conservation
  4. Director – International Affairs, CSR Times
  5. Member – International Working Committee, Pancham Dhaam, Cambodia
  6. Chairman (UAE) – Satya Sai Orphan Trust –Trivandrum.
  7. Member–“Hindi Council India”
  8. Volunteer Foreign Correspondence in UAE- Hindi Khabar (24×7 News Channel in India)
  9. Committee/Board Member – Hindu Cremation Ground Committee, Dubai. UAE.
  10. Patron & Co-Founder – https://www.artscrafts.co to promoting Innovative & Artistic talents from around the World. Dubai, UAE.
  11. Advisor of Sreevats memorial trust (Bangalore)

Former Position: –

  1. President Dubai–Indian People’s Forum, UAE. (2015-2018).
  2. President UAE (Labor Welfare & Consular Affair’s)–Indian People’s Forum, UAE. (2018-
    2020, 31st July).
  3. Director CSR – Contracting Group of company, UAE.(2019-2020)
  4. General Secretary– India International Trade Development Organization-UAE.