Service to poor children is the best service.
In a Mumbai hotel on a Wednesday evening, Punjab Governor Gulab Chand Kataria set aside his health concerns to attend the Buddha Peace Award 2025 ceremony and publicly honor the Maitry Peace Foundation — an organization quietly transforming India's most forgotten children into citizens with dignity and purpose. The governor's presence was itself a statement: that the work of sheltering, feeding, and mentoring poor orphans is not charity at the margins of national life, but a form of nation-building at its very core. His call to scale such recognition speaks to a broader human truth — that societies are measured not by how they celebrate their brightest, but by how they tend to their most invisible.
- A sitting governor, despite physical limitations, chose to attend a ceremony specifically because of what one foundation is doing for children no one else is watching.
- Dozens of achievers were honored that night, yet the real tension in the room was moral — how does a society account for children born into nothing, with no parents, no home, no safety net?
- The Maitry Peace Foundation's answer is residential: bring the children in, feed them, shelter them, and then go further — instill discipline, civic pride, and a sense of self that outlasts poverty.
- Governor Kataria's public endorsement transformed a quiet ceremony into a policy signal, urging the foundation to think beyond one hotel ballroom and reach audiences across the country.
- Foundation president Surajit Barua accepted the challenge, committing to a larger next ceremony — a small but concrete step toward making invisible work visible at national scale.
On a Wednesday evening in Mumbai, Punjab Governor Gulab Chand Kataria arrived at the Buddha Peace Award and Gaurav Shree Samman 2025 ceremony despite his health concerns. The draw was the Maitry Peace Foundation — an organization he had come to know for its work with some of India's most vulnerable children — and he felt the occasion demanded his presence.
More than two dozen achievers from across the country were honored that night. But the governor's attention kept returning to the foundation's residential hostels, where poor orphans are identified, brought in, and given free food and shelter. He addressed the gathering directly: 'Service to poor children is the best service.' He went further, describing what he understood the foundation to be doing — not merely keeping children alive, but building in them discipline, dedication, and pride in their country. 'By helping these poor children become good and responsible citizens, you are doing a great service to the nation,' he said.
Mumbai entrepreneur and social worker Mustafa Yusufali Gom, himself a recipient of the Buddha Peace Award that evening, echoed the governor's assessment. The foundation's work, he said, extends well beyond meals and a roof — it nurtures in these children a sense of self-respect and connection to something larger than their own survival.
Kataria used his platform to push the foundation toward greater ambition, urging that future ceremonies be held on a larger scale before wider audiences. Foundation president Surajit Barua took the suggestion to heart, telling reporters he would plan the next event to recognize more achievers from across the country. What the evening ultimately revealed was an organization working at the intersection of immediate need and long-term transformation — and a governor willing to travel, unwell, to say that such work deserves to be seen.
On a Wednesday evening at a Mumbai hotel, Punjab Governor Gulab Chand Kataria sat among the honorees at the Buddha Peace Award and Gaurav Shree Samman 2025 ceremony, an event he had decided to attend despite his health concerns. The draw was simple: the work of the Maitry Peace Foundation, an organization that had caught his attention for what it does with some of India's most vulnerable children.
Over two dozen achievers from across the country were being recognized that night—people who had distinguished themselves in various fields. But Kataria's focus remained on the foundation itself and the quiet work happening in its hostels. He had learned that Maitry Peace Foundation identifies poor orphans, brings them into residential facilities, and provides them with free food and shelter. It is work he felt compelled to acknowledge publicly. "Service to poor children is the best service," he told the gathering. He spoke directly to what he understood the foundation was accomplishing: taking children with almost nothing and giving them the material stability to survive, then going further—building in them discipline, a sense of dedication, and pride in their country. "By helping these poor children become good and responsible citizens, you are doing a great service to the nation," he said.
The governor's presence itself carried weight. He had accepted the invitation from Maitry Peace Foundation president Surajit Barua despite his physical limitations, a decision he explained by the importance of the work being recognized. He suggested, too, that the foundation think bigger. "In future, we must hold such programmes on a larger scale with more people witnessing it," he said. Barua took the suggestion seriously, telling reporters afterward that he would plan the next ceremony to reach a wider audience and bring more recognition to achievers across the country.
Mustafa Yusufali Gom, a Mumbai-based entrepreneur and social worker who himself received the Buddha Peace Award that evening, added his own assessment of what the foundation does. He noted that the work extends beyond the basics of shelter and meals. "They not only provide free lodging and food to these children, they also nurture discipline, dedication and sense of pride for our country among these children," he said. It was a description that captured something the governor had also sensed: that the foundation's mission is not merely to feed and house orphans, but to shape them into citizens with self-respect and connection to something larger than themselves.
What emerged from the evening was a portrait of an organization working at the intersection of immediate need and long-term transformation. The children in Maitry Peace Foundation's care arrive with almost nothing—no parents, no home, no certainty about where their next meal will come from. The foundation provides those things. But it also provides something harder to measure and longer to build: the conditions under which a child can grow into someone who contributes to society rather than merely survives within it. The governor's visit, and his public endorsement, suggested that this work—unglamorous, sustained, focused on children most of the country does not see—deserves to be witnessed and scaled.
Notable Quotes
By helping these poor children become good and responsible citizens, you are doing a great service to the nation.— Punjab Governor Gulab Chand Kataria
They not only provide free lodging and food to these children, they also nurture discipline, dedication and sense of pride for our country among these children.— Mustafa Yusufali Gom, entrepreneur and social worker
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why did the governor make a point of saying he came despite his health concerns?
Because he wanted to signal that this work matters enough to overcome his own limitations. It's a form of validation—he's saying: this is important enough that I show up.
What's the difference between what the foundation does and what any orphanage does?
The distinction Gom made is telling. Any institution can provide a bed and food. But Maitry is described as nurturing discipline, dedication, and civic pride. They're not just keeping children alive—they're shaping how these children see themselves and their place in the country.
The governor suggested scaling up. Why would that matter?
Right now, the work is real but invisible. Most Indians don't know these children exist or what's being done for them. Scaling means more children get help, yes, but also that the public witnesses it, understands it, maybe supports it. Invisibility is a kind of abandonment.
Is there a risk in making this more public?
Possibly. Attention can bring resources, but it can also bring pressure to perform, to prove impact in ways that might distort the actual work. The foundation would have to be careful about what scaling means.
What does "sense of pride for our country" mean in this context?
It means these children, who have every reason to feel abandoned by society, are being taught to see themselves as part of something—as future citizens with a stake in the nation. It's about belonging, not charity.