Not political; strictly cultural By Kamal Malviya

The Bharat Vikas Parishad is a council of the elite, the intellectuals and the well-to-do, who have dedicated their lives to the service of the poor, the disabled, the illiterate and the ignorant for infusing in them a sense of responsibility and self-confidence?a true concept of serving the needy.

The late Dr Suraj Prakash and his colleagues, Balraj Madhok, Kedar Nath Sahani, P.N. Seth and others, decided to establish an organisation parallel to but different from the Lions Club. The Bharat Vikas Parishad came into being in 1963, after the 1962 Indo-China war, so as to strengthen the people socially and culturally. ?Bharat Vikas Parishad has no political aims. It not only keeps itself strictly aloof from politics but also denies political activists any significant role in the organisation,? said Suraj Prakash.

Presently, the Parishad is headed by Justice M. Rama Jois, Governor of Jharkhand. Bharat Vikas Parishad has a three-tier structure with branches at local level, a state setup and a centre. For its work, the country has been divided into 41 states and grouped into 13 zones. At the central level, the national secretary general as the chief executive assists the national president. He in turn is assisted by a number of national additional secretary generals, national secreta-ries, zonal organising secre-taries and national conve-ners, to whom responsibility is assigned on functional as well as zonal basis. Many distinguished personalities and the elite of the society are its members.

It has 1,100 branches all over India with a membership of 30,000 families including non-resident Indians. ?We have recognised five sutras of our work?sampark, sahyog, samskar, sewa and samarpan. Our aim is to organise and motivate the citizens to help the poor and the disabled not only as part of charity, but also as their duty,? said Ishwar Dutt Ojha, Bharat Vikas Parishad'snational general secretary.

To achieve its twin objectives of sewa and samskar, Bharat Vikas Parishad has taken up a number of projects and programmes. The Parishad'smain projects are Viklang Sahayta and Punarvas Yojana, Vanvasi Sahayta Yojana and Gram Basti Vikas Yojana. There are also samskar projects, which include national group-song competitions, Bharat ko jano competitions, Guru Vandan Chhatra Abhinandan and Samskar Shivirs. ?Through these programmes every year around 29 lakh students come into our contact,? informed Shri Ojha.

The Parishad is the only non-governmental organisation that renders services to the largest number of handicapped persons annually. It has 15 Viklang Sahayta Kendras and 26 Punarvas Kendras all over the country. In addition, the Parishad has 613 permanent projects for the benefit of the society. Its Prakashan Vibhag publishes 33,000 copies of its in-house monthly journal, Niti, and 24 other journals. www.bharatvikas.org