Sheer providence

Harak Chand Rara knows what it feels like when you don't get your dues after a lifetime of hard work. That's why he has devoted his retired life to fighting legal battles - free of cost - on behalf of the elderly.
Pitted against the lethargy and red tape of Rajasthan's State Pension Department, Rara and his colleagues, grouped under the Rajasthan Rajya Stantriki Karmchari Kalyan Parishad (RSKKP), have managed to hand back money to hundreds of harassed pensioners.
Rara started off in 1985 fighting his own case. "When I retired as a teacher at 60, I was told that I will get pension calculated only from the age of 55. But I joined my service in my 20s and deserved my pension from that point," recalls Rara. Armed with his knowledge of law - he had studied it but never taken it up professionally - Rara dragged the state pension department to court, won the case and got the ruling changed. He formed RSKKP soon after.
RSKKP doesn't charge a fee to fight the cases, which often start at the Rajasthan Services Tribunal and go all the way to the apex court after passing through the high court.
The most challenging and satisfying part of the job, Rara says, is getting pension for widows who are often cheated of it by corrupt officials. "There is no bigger pleasure than seeing the smiling faces of those who had been deprived of their dues."