"Long before corporate social responsibility became popular or required (by law), Dhunjishaw Neterwala felt the need to give back to society,” wrote Jamsheed Mehta about his late grandfather, who would have become a centenarian this October. Some years after Neterwala acquired a factory in Tumsar, Bhandara district, Maharashtra to manufacture manganese products [Universal Ferro and Allied Chemicals (UFAC)], "he built a school and a hospital for the local residents... There was no school of quality standard in that area,” Mehta wrote.
1st row: family members and staff of Shirinbai Neterwala School celebrating
Dhunjishaw Neterwala’s birth anniversary, 2018; 2nd row, from l: School playground and building;
entrance; bust of Dhunjishaw; 3rd row: Dhunjishaw (center, foreground)
with family and extended family members, 2010
The Shirinbai Neterwala School, named after Dhunjishaw’s mother started out as a small institution in 1982, noted Mehta. The 860+ students at the coeducational School today have access to a playground that "is big enough to hold four volleyball, one kho-kho, one cricket and one track and field tournament simultaneously,” noted an email from Lyla, Mehta’s wife. The 7,000-book library and "close to 10,000 e-books cater to the tastes of every age group,” she noted. The School "became the first school in the district to follow the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) curriculum,” stated Jamsheed. CBSE has recognized the School as a lead collaborator school under its "Hubs of Learning Scheme.” A school is so designated by the Board on the basis of its results, pupil-teacher ratio and innovative practices in the institution, notes the CBSE website. The Board has also designated the School a "Mentor and Monitor School” to act as "facilitators and capacity builders” to other schools.
Neterwala "invested time, effort and money to make sure that the faculty and the facilities of the School, including infrastructure, laboratories and playgrounds matched those of bigger cities,” wrote Jamsheed. He recalled: "I remember very clearly how grateful the residents of Tumsar were to my grandfather, not only for providing them with jobs, but also for setting up the School and a hospital.” Another grandson of Dhunjishaw, Jehangir Vakil recalls him as a "visionary, pioneer, empathic mentor, influencer, deep thinker… (who was) humble, open-minded, able to use his mind and heart to win financially and socially.” Dhunjishaw was "always available to meet those who had ambitions and share knowledge,” he stated.
Neterwala also established a hospital in 1981 and named it a after his father Maneck. The 62-bed Hospital was equipped with "all the modern equipment of the time” as well as specialist doctors for gynecology, ophthalmology, dentistry and general surgery. "The Hospital had to be closed down because of unavailability of doctors,” noted Lyla.
As notes Jamsheed’s mother Pervin in the chairperson’s message hosted on the School website, "Neterwala did not inherit wealth... He created it with hard work.” At the age of 12, he would cycle for miles across Nasik and Deolali, where he lived, to fetch radio sets which he learned to repair himself by reading science magazines, she wrote. "He decided to do something worthwhile with the land and money he had acquired at UFAC... He believed in sharing his wealth in a positive and useful way.”