He is ‘Mama’ for the needy and ignored

Times of India: Ahmedabad: Monday, 27 April 2015.

Chandrakant Contractor, 62, is called 'Mama' (maternal uncle) by the needy people who turn to him for help. For Jamalpur resident Razzak Chipa, too, he is 'Mama'. When Chipa's teenage daughter committed suicide by jumping into river Sabarmati a few months back, it was Mama who accompanied the bereaved father to the Ellisbridge police station for lodging of an FIR.

Contractor, a resident of Vejalpur, believes in the ideology of the RSS. He retired as a clerk from VS Hospital. Many people come to him for help, whether it is to call a doctor, seek urgent treatment at the VS hospital, or accompany people to courts and police stations for legal assistance.

"I have believed in the RSS ideology for the last 39 years. However, having spent a major part of my life in Jamalpur, I am close to local people too. I am not well connected but people come to me for help. My perseverance is what attracts them to me. I hang around government offices till their work is done," said Contractor.

He still remembers the day when he urged a doctor at VS hospital to treat a person whose heart had stopped beating.

"I insistently urged the doctor to give the patient a heart massage and see if something could be done. The doctor treated the person and, by the grace of God, his heart revived," said Contractor.

Contractor is not just a social worker but an RTI activist too. "I had filed an RTI application to find out why the pension of a retired woman government servant had been blocked. We legally confronted the officials and very soon the woman began getting her pension once again," said Contractor.

After retirement, Contractor sits in the office of an advocate near Gheekanta court campus. "He hears the woes of the people and accompanies them selflessly to the court campus to ensure that their work is done without undue delay," said one of his friends.