The message of Shri Guruji has reached remote Vanvasi areas of the country. The team of 1,308 full time workers of the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram approached 47,000 Vanvasi villages and established contacts in all 700 Vanvasi groups at all 304 Vanvasi districts of the country.
Like various other organisations, Shri Guruji had played a key role in formation of the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram. I have the privilege to attend some of his functions. I had attended his programme in Ranchi during his last days at Morabadi ground and in Maheshwari Bhavan, Upper Bazar. Since all the organisations inspired by Shri Guruji concentrated on expansion of their work, the Kalyan Ashram too chalked out activities to bring more Vanvasis into the Kalyan Ashram fold and to apprise them of the views of Shri Guruji. The Kalyan Ashram is working among the Vanvasis of the country in 304 districts. A total of 700 Vanvasi groups in 51,000 revenue villages live like a free bird, breathing pollution free air, drinking and living in pollution free atmosphere. The Kalyan Ashram with its headquarters in Jashpur Nagar has projects at 9,418 places. The Kalyan Ashram activists went in 10,370 villages and tied Rakhi on hands of Vanvasi brethrens. Through meetings, the Kalyan Ashram workers approached more than ten lakh Vanvasis in the country.
Besides literature distribution across the country, 1,500 delegates of Kalyan Ashram met in Bhiwani, Haryana, to plan the programmes for celebrating the birth centenary. Noted Jain saint Acharya Mahaprajna, Hujur Kunwar Sen of Radha Swami sect, Supreme Court Bar Association chairman Shri M.N. Krishnamani, retired judges Shri Hemendra Singh Thakur and Shri M. Papanna (Karnataka) and Shri Madhubhai Kulkarni, Akhil Bharatiya Bauddhik Pramukh of RSS, addressed the delegates.
A total of 42,000 Vanvasis assembled at the Indira Gandhi Stadium in Purnia to hear the views of Shankaracharya Nishchalananda Saraswati on Shri Guruji. He described Shri Guruji as a Yugdrashta and the voice of rural people. He said there is no space for ill-thinking, untouchability, backward-forward, high and low in Hindutva.
The Kalyan Ashram workers also treated 6,14,200 patients in Vanvasi areas this year. The beneficiaries of educational projects are 1,90,000 people. Beneficiaries of economic development projects are also in thousands. The Kalyan Ashram runs 12,708 service projects at 9,418 places though its 32 state units registered in different states.
