Gopi Ballabh Singh Deo at home in Purulia. Picture by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya

A white-haired man in plain white dhoti-kurta took the Science City stage on Wednesday morning to be inducted into The Telegraph Education Foundation Hall of Fame. The gentle smile and soft voice hardly hinted at the steely determination within. The determination that has dared him to dream, a dream that has earned him the love and respect of everyone in his part of Purulia.

Gopi Ballabh Singh Deo, a fortnight before the felicitation, was sitting on a cane chair in the verandah of his Rajnoagarh home, talking about his life?s work in a barely audible voice.

Gopibabu, as he is known, has been battling throat cancer for years and is now suffering from gallstones. But nothing has deterred him from his mission ? empowering the Sabar tribe.

Besides adopting 31 villages, helping them establish the lift-irrigation system and make a living from agriculture, he has provided for a one-room school in every village.

?Education is most important. They all drop out after Class VI or VII. But one day, I will make sure that Sabar children complete school. That is my dream,? he asserted.

An 87th-generation Rajput, his family has been settled in Purulia for over 13 generations. He started the Paschim Banga Kheria Sabar Kalyan Samity in the early 1960s. It was in 1962 that he asked Mahasveta Devi for help.

Although the author has made the work of the organisation famous, Gopibabu has remained the driving force behind the movement, shying away from the spotlight.

?I am no one special,? he insisted. It?s just a tradition that he?s continuing, after his father and grandfather, who had been working for the welfare of Rajnoagarh.

For over 35 years, Gopibabu was a teacher in the local government school started by his father and named after his grandfather. Now retired, he continues to work for the welfare of the Sabars.

He has also built a community centre with a hostel where meritorious students from the Sabar community, both boys and girls, can stay, study and even learn farming and pisciculture. ?They must learn to be self-sufficient.?

The adults in the community are part of a craft development project, making traditional handicrafts that are sold around the country. Each family and village has a passbook and a bank account to deposit and save money.

?It is important for them to sustain their own livelihoods. That will give them a belief in themselves,? said the man driven by his belief in himself, his people and his dream.