Already in Bandra near Bombay, in mid-1942, right after the first group of children evacuated from the USSR arrived in India, the “Orły” scout troop was formed spontaneously. However, the beginnings of organized scouting activities of Polish children and youth in the whole of India fall in July of that year, i.e. in the period shortly after the children were transferred to Balachadi from the temporary, transitional center of their stay in Bandra. After they reached their permanent place of settlement in India, together with the organization of education and other areas of everyday life in Balachadi, the creation of a scouting movement was started, in which young people and children would gather, which was to develop their education in the spirit of patriotism, or to expand their education by teaching appropriate skills and abilities…
The first in the scouting structure of the settlement was this ten-person “Orły” troop, which soon grew into a troop named after Tadeusz Kościuszko. Almost at the same time, a women’s scouting troop was also formed. The mass nature of the scouting movement in Balachadi can be said to have been present since the arrival of the second transport of children evacuated from the Soviet Union (in September 1942) and the arrival of a young teacher and scout instructor Janina Ptak with the third transport in December.
After a few months of staying in the settlement, scoutmaster Janina Ptak was proud to report to the Headquarters of the Polish Scouting Association in the East that a scout troop had been formed on the Indian subcontinent, near the small village of Balachadi (later transformed into an independent troop), consisting of: three teams of scout girls, two teams of scout boys, three troop of cub scouts, one troop of cub scouts (soon another one was formed).
For the transitional period, two troop of girls from the convents in Karachi and Panchgani and a troop of boys from the convent in Mount Abu were also included in the troop. In 1943, scoutmaster Janina Ptak became a scoutmistress and on 15th August she received her first scout promise in Balachadi. As of 1st September 1943, the troop had a total of 239 members. Later, this number fluctuated constantly due to the rotation of young people transferred (when they reached a certain age) to the Valivade settlement (the largest permanent Polish settlement in India) and various convents, and due to the simultaneous arrival of groups of younger children in Balachadi. Nevertheless, throughout the existence of the settlement, the troop had a staff of several hundred people.