Tamgadge Trust awards scholarships to girls and to students living with sickle cell disease in Nagpur; Tukaram Mundhe, IAS, urges students to turn information into wisdom
Nagpur (Maharashtra), August 3 — A scholarship distribution ceremony in Nagpur turned into a wider public conversation on sickle cell anaemia on Sunday, as senior civil servants, doctors and educationists pressed for open discussion, timely screening and shared social responsibility on the inherited blood disorder.
The Smrutishesh Madhukarrao Tamgadge Charitable Trust held the educational scholarship distribution, sickle cell awareness and career guidance programme at Dr Vasantrao Deshpande Hall, Civil Lines.
Scholarships were awarded to meritorious girls from economically weaker families. The Trust also presented the Atharva Educational Scholarship to students living with sickle cell disease — an award instituted so that repeated illness and hospitalisation do not force affected students to drop out.
The programme was presided over by Sandeep Tamgadge, IPS, Additional Director General of Police, Nagaland, who leads the Trust’s education and sickle cell work. Senior IRS officer Unmesh Wagh inaugurated the event, and Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Tukaram Mundhe, IAS, delivered the principal address.
Also present were Dhananjay Wanjari, IRS; Sachin Shende, Regional Director, Reserve Bank of India, Nagpur; Dr Neeraj Bodhi, Head of the Department of Pali and Buddhist Studies, Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University; Kusumtai Tamgadge, President of the Trust; Leena Tamgadge, Vice-President; and Jayshree Ramteke, President of the Sickle Cell Society of India.
‘I am a carrier, and I feel no shame in saying so’
In his presidential address, Tamgadge said the event was deliberately designed as a public platform rather than a routine disbursement.
“The scholarship amount could have been transferred directly to the students’ bank accounts. However, such a public programme enables students to interact with experienced professionals, understand career opportunities beyond government service, and engage with important social concerns,” he said.
He then publicly stated that he is himself a sickle cell carrier, and argued that carrier status should carry neither shame nor silence.
“Unless we speak openly about sickle cell disease, people will not understand its seriousness. I am myself a sickle cell carrier. I am a senior officer and I lead a normal life, but I do not feel any embarrassment in speaking about my carrier status,” he said.
Tamgadge called for far wider awareness of premarital screening, particularly in communities and regions where the condition is more prevalent.
“Families consider several factors before marriage, but blood testing is often neglected. Premarital screening, appropriate medical counselling and informed decision-making must become part of public awareness,” he said, adding that screening must be paired with sensitive counselling and accurate information rather than fear or discrimination.
‘A social issue, not one family’s medical problem’
Tamgadge said the burden of sickle cell disease falls on entire families, especially where diagnostic facilities, regular treatment and transfusion services are hard to reach.
“Sickle cell anaemia cannot be viewed only as an individual medical problem or the responsibility of one family. It is a social issue that requires the participation of the government, healthcare institutions, civil society organisations and communities,” he said.
Drawing on his service in Nagaland, he pointed to community solidarity as a model.
“In Nagaland, when a person lacks resources or a child is left without support, the community comes together to take responsibility for education, employment and rehabilitation. No social problem can be resolved by one individual alone, nor can every responsibility be placed upon the government,” he said.
“The objective of a sickle cell-free India cannot be achieved only through government schemes or the work of a single organisation,” he added.
Screening, camps and the transfusion gap
The Trust’s Social Impact Report 2021–2025, published on its official website, records screening of [VERIFY — see editor’s note] people for sickle cell disease. The Trust also runs testing and medicine-distribution camps, blood donation drives and health awareness initiatives, alongside scholarships, career guidance and book distribution to study centres serving students from disadvantaged communities.
Its representatives said the work is concentrated in communities where awareness is low and access to screening and continuing care is limited.
Jayshree Ramteke turned the discussion to patients who depend on regular transfusions, stressing that they must receive safe, quality-assured blood and that standards be maintained uniformly across blood banks and treatment facilities — a task requiring coordination between blood banks, hospitals, government departments and voluntary donors.
Tamgadge also recalled the late Padma Shri Sampat Ramteke, whose work helped push sickle cell disease into policy and public health discourse, and said the Trust’s programmes seek to carry that legacy forward.
He acknowledged Tukaram Mundhe’s administrative interventions in the health and disability welfare sectors, saying that when the difficulties faced by people with sickle cell disease and thalassaemia were placed before him, Mundhe examined the conditions, disability-rights legislation and the institutional routes through which affected persons could claim assistance — helping direct administrative attention to invisible disabilities and blood disorders that are not visible on the body. He also thanked Unmesh Wagh for backing the Trust’s screening drives through institutional and CSR support that extended testing into underserved areas.
‘Are we using the mobile phone, or is it using us?’
Addressing the students, Mundhe made critical thinking his central theme.
“Knowledge is now available in everyone’s pocket through the mobile phone. The real challenge is to transform that knowledge into wisdom, distinguish between right and wrong, and continue learning throughout life,” he said.
“The question is not whether we should use a mobile phone. The question is whether we are using the mobile phone or whether the mobile phone is using us.”
He urged students not to accept information simply because it appears on a digital platform, but to examine its source, accuracy, purpose and consequences. “Use artificial intelligence, machine learning and social media, but develop the habit of questioning and verifying what you receive. We need to climb the ladder from knowledge to wisdom,” he said.
Warning against intellectual passivity, he added: “When a voice turns into noise, thought gets suppressed. Thinking is not the problem; thoughtlessness is the real problem.”
Degrees and certificates may open the door to a job, he said, but long-term progress depends on skills, judgement and a willingness to keep learning.
Careers beyond the competitive examination
Unmesh Wagh told students not to treat failure in a competitive examination as the end of a professional life. He advised them to build alternative career plans and acquire relevant skills, pointing to openings in logistics, ports, railways, aviation, transportation and supply-chain management.
“Along with academic preparation, build genuine friendships. Friends who support, guide and encourage one another during difficult periods become an invaluable source of strength,” he said, praising Tamgadge for sustaining education and public health work while posted in Nagaland.
Dhananjay Wanjari urged students to choose careers on the basis of ability, interest and considered judgement rather than external pressure, and cautioned against letting forwarded messages and short videos displace deep reading and original thought. Scholarships, he said, should enable beneficiaries to contribute to social change, not merely to secure individual employment.
Sachin Shende spoke on opportunities in banking, finance, technology, entrepreneurship and start-ups, describing a degree as only an entry point and encouraging students to become creators of employment rather than only job-seekers.
Dr Neeraj Bodhi advised students to read widely and build capability across disciplines, noting opportunities in research, languages, and Pali and Buddhist Studies, and asked them not to let AI and digital tools replace books, libraries and sustained engagement with foundational texts.
The programme was conducted by Dr Siddharth Gaekwad. Swapnil Nikhade proposed the vote of thanks.
— Vijay Gaikwad