Daljit Kaur (28)
D/o:Harcharan Singh Mukta
Occupation: Unemployed
Daljit has done her masters in Punjabi and public administration besides several computer courses, and is now looking for a job in Patiala. After the death of her father (who belonged to Dera Mir Miyan Sirhind), the family was left to fend for itself, with no radical group offering any help. So her mother Amar Kaur took to working at other people’s houses to educate her three daughters.
“We didn’t have any land and it was only my mother’s work that supported us. I also took tuition to pay for my courses,” says Daljit. As for the Dera Sacha Sauda, she says it’s a controversy created by politicians and best kept at a distance.

Sarabjit Singh (25)
S/o: Amarjit Singh
Occupation: Clerk in Guru Nanak Dev University
After a masters in economics, Sarabjit is working as a clerk at GNDU in Amritsar. When his father—at one time a Punjab Police employee and belonging to Khemkaran in Tarn Taran—died, his mother Malkiat Kaur took charge. She sold their two-three acre land in Khemkaran and shifted to Amritsar, where she worked as a clerk in a hospital to look after her two sons. The family has no affiliation with any Sikh organisation, particularly as none came forward to help them after their father died. The people who collected lakhs of rupees from various Sikh groups in foreign countries in his father’s name refused to recognise them when they needed help, says a bitter Sarabjit.

Manpreet Kaur (23)
D/o:Amrik Singh
Occupation:Student
Manpreet is doing her masters in Computer Application. Though her father was from Varpal village of Patti in Amritsar, she stays in Gurdaspur now.

... contd.