Do at least one good deed a day — is the motto of Girish Pant who is hailed as the saviour or mes­siah of poor work­ers or stranded sea­far­ers. In­dian ex­pat Pant, who works in the fi­nance de­part­ment of a UAE based com­pany, be­lieves in only one re­li­gion — hu­man­ity. Born and raised in New Delhi but orig­i­nally from Pithor­a­garh – Beri­nag in Ut­trak­hand, India, Pant is a vol­un­tary so­cial worker who em­pathises with poor labour­ers trapped or de­frauded by em­ploy­ers, stranded sea­far­ers, or for that mat­ter any­one gen­uinely in need. He helps them by “legally” sort­ing out is­sues, mostly with the help of the In­dian con­sulate.

Do at least one good deed a day — is the motto of Girish Pant who is hailed as the saviour or mes­siah of poor work­ers or stranded sea­far­ers. In­dian ex­pat Pant, who works in the fi­nance de­part­ment of a UAEbased com­pany, be­lieves in only one re­li­gion — hu­man­ity. Born and raised in New Delhi but orig­i­nally from Pithor­a­garh – Beri­nag in Ut­trak­hand, India, Pant is a vol­un­tary so­cial worker who em­pathises with poor labour­ers trapped or de­frauded by em­ploy­ers, stranded sea­far­ers, or for that mat­ter any­one gen­uinely in need. He helps them by “legally” sort­ing out is­sues, mostly with the help of the In­dian con­sulate.

Pant has been in the UAE from 2008 and has helped out about 500 peo­ple of dif­fer­ent na­tion­al­i­ties, mostly stranded sea­far­ers (100200) or work­ers left in a lurch by em­ploy­ers. He has also per­son­ally repa­tri­ated bod­ies to India, helped work­ers get out­passes, and even coun­selled and pre­vented a few con­tem­plat­ing sui­cide.

Help­ing peo­ple in dis­tress is a fam­ily trait, says Girish Pant, whose grand­fa­ther was a free­dom fighter of India and whose father is known as a good Sa­mar­i­tan of his town.

Girish has lost count of how many ac­ci­dent vic­tims he has helped while in Delhi where he worked a decade ago. “I would feel pa­thetic how peo­ple would just sur­round the vic­tim and just stare on

Girish has lost count of how many ac­ci­dent vic­tims he has helped while in Delhi where he worked a decade ago. “I would feel pa­thetic how peo­ple would just sur­round the vic­tim and just stare on

It is not a big deal when you work for your­self or your fam­ily, but what adds value to your life is when you sac­ri­fice for strangers. And it’s not tough.” Girish Pant, so­cial worker 500 num­ber of peo­ple res­cued by Girish pant, mostly sea­far­ers

him or her with­out help­ing out.”

From help­ing peo­ple left stranded on road due to car break­downs or ac­ci­dents to deal­ing with cops, coun­sel­ing friends out of de­pres­sion, Pant wants to be of help to all, as that is what gives him ‘con­tent­ment and hap­pi­ness’.

From help­ing peo­ple left stranded on road due to car break­downs or ac­ci­dents to deal­ing with cops, coun­sel­ing friends out of de­pres­sion, Pant wants to be of help to all, as that is what gives him ‘con­tent­ment and hap­pi­ness’.

“I was jolted by the sui­cide of my cousin, who took the ex­treme step as he was heav­ily un­der debt and didn’t want to share his prob­lem with any­one. “It was hope­less­ness and de­pres­sion that drove him to take this step on De­cem­ber 25, 2013. That hit me hard and from that day on I took upon my­self to try and help out who­ever I can and how­ever I can.”

In 2013, when floods rav­aged his home city Ut­trak­hand, Pant per­son­ally vis­ited the city, with con­tri­bu­tions from the peo­ple of the UAE. He trav­elled 38 hours in risky moun­tain­ous re­gion with 400kg of relief ma­te­rial to per­son­ally de­liver aid to the af­fected peo­ple.

In 2013, when floods rav­aged his home city Ut­trak­hand, Pant per­son­ally vis­ited the city, with con­tri­bu­tions from the peo­ple of the UAE. He trav­elled 38 hours in risky moun­tain­ous re­gion with 400kg of relief ma­te­rial to per­son­ally de­liver aid to the af­fected peo­ple.

The same year, since he was a part of Ut­trak­hand as­so­ci­a­tion in UAE, he re­ceived news of a sea­farer’s dead body that had to be handed over to his fam­ily in India. “I of­fered to per­son­ally hand over the body be­cause I felt what if some­thing like this hap­pens to any of my fam­ily mem­bers. Wouldn’t I rush to help then? So I do not dif­fer­en­ti­ate on the ba­sis of re­li­gion or na­tion­al­ity, for me hu­man­ity comes first. The mo­ment I get a call for help, I rush.” Since then, Pant has helped repa­tri­ate a num­ber of bod­ies of In­di­ans back to their home coun­try.

The same year, since he was a part of Ut­trak­hand as­so­ci­a­tion in UAE, he re­ceived news of a sea­farer’s dead body that had to be handed over to his fam­ily in India. “I of­fered to per­son­ally hand over the body be­cause I felt what if some­thing like this hap­pens to any of my fam­ily mem­bers. Wouldn’t I rush to help then? So I do not dif­fer­en­ti­ate on the ba­sis of re­li­gion or na­tion­al­ity, for me hu­man­ity comes first. The mo­ment I get a call for help, I rush.” Since then, Pant has helped repa­tri­ate a num­ber of bod­ies of In­di­ans back to their home coun­try.

In 2015, twenty-three work­ers of a con­tract­ing com­pany were left in a lurch af­ter their owner fled the coun­try 50 days ago with­out pay­ing the work­ers. They were forced to live in­side a bus for over a fort­night. Pant stayed in touch with the work­ers, pro­vid­ing them with food, water and other ne­ces­si­ties from his own house. He vis­ited them each and every day af­ter his work hours and also got in touch with the of­fi­cials at the Min­istry of Labour, Dubai Po­lice Hu­man Rights De­part­ment, and the In­dian Con­sulate in Dubai who he says were ‘very co­op­er­a­tive’ in the case.

Pant has helped over 100 stranded sea­far­ers by of­fi­cially tak­ing help of the con­sulate and other UAE au­thor­i­ties and per­son­ally by go­ing to meet them, pro­vid­ing them moral sup­port and coun­sel­ing.

Pant says that we get this gift of life only once so why not make the most of it by help­ing oth­ers be­cause that will keep you alive in the hearts of peo­ple for­ever and ever. “It is not a big deal when you work for your self or your fam­ily, but what adds value to your life and makes you great is when you sac­ri­fice your com­fort for strangers. And it is not tough. You just have to place your­self or your fam­ily in the vic­tim’s shoes and you will know what to do.

Pant says that we get this gift of life only once so why not make the most of it by help­ing oth­ers be­cause that will keep you alive in the hearts of peo­ple for­ever and ever. “It is not a big deal when you work for your self or your fam­ily, but what adds value to your life and makes you great is when you sac­ri­fice your com­fort for strangers. And it is not tough. You just have to place your­self or your fam­ily in the vic­tim’s shoes and you will know what to do.

“My pur­pose of life is to work re­lent­lessly for hu­man­ity, make dif­fer­ence in the lives of peo­ple to the level that af­ter I go, I still re­main in peo­ple’s hearts.”