To motivate parents of athornan boys to enroll their children as boarders in the Dadar Athornan Institute (DAI) a sum of two crore rupees (USD 241,705) has been earmarked by Neville H. Sarkari, founder trustee of the Zarin Neville Sarkari Foundation in Denver, USA and his co-trustee Jehangir Shroff from Houston. The students will receive a religious and secular education with the ultimate aim of qualifying as yaozdathregar mobeds.
Top: class at Dadar Athornan Institute (above)
Details of the scheme, which would be implemented in collaboration with the trustees of the World Zoroastrian Organisation Trust Fund (WZOTF) and the Athornan Mandal (AM) which runs DAI, have been signed by Dinshaw Tamboly, chairman WZOTF and Homiyar Madan, managing trustee of WZOTF (Bombay) as well as Dastur Khurshed Dastoor, president of the AM and Ervad (Dr) Ramiyar Karanjia, principal of DAI. An email in this connection was forwarded to Parsiana by Tamboly.
Established by the AM in 1919, DAI is the only seminary that provides Zoroastrian youth from athornan families both religious training and secular education in a school of repute totally free of charge. Unfortunately, the number of children availing of this facility has been reducing which does not augur well for the community, states the write-up.
The incentive scheme will be applicable for existing boarders as well as new entrants who join from June 2023 onwards, notes the email. For the new entrants, an amount of Rs 60,000 per annum will be invested every year; when they leave DAI after completing the full term of studies the amount along with compound interest will be handed over to them. Boarders who complete the full course of studies from class one to class 10 will receive a total of Rs 8,30,942 (Rs 60,000 per annum plus Rs 2,30,947 as notional interest compounded @ 7.05% per annum). Those leaving DAI midway will not receive any amount under this scheme.
To make the scheme equitable, existing boarders will receive a proportionate amount. S. V.