Apart from fighting for the students? causes, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) has engaged the students in several constructive activities. Running Samskar Kendras, reading rooms, blood donation, blood donors? list, book banks, health camps, employment training centres, conducting seminars and symposiums on national and social issues, study groups, etc. are the projects which not only give a social vision to the workers but also inspire them to do something concrete and constructive for the needy sections of the society. Presently, the Parishad is running a total of 168 service projects across the country.
A free-health check up camp is organised at Madurai of Tamil Nadu every week for the last nine years. Similarly, a tuberculosis project is run for the TB patients in Chennai for the last three years. In order to promote Hindi in southern states of the country, free Hindi coaching classes are conducted in Coimbatore. This kind of free classes are also organised in rural areas of Tamil Nadu. Two Bal Mazdoor Schools are being run for labourers in Andhra Pradesh for the last five years. The state has 32 blood donor clubs also. Besides this, free coaching classes are organised at 29 places. By and large 63 projects at 32 places are run in whole Andhra Pradesh.
Similarly, a Samskar Kendra, a book bank, four blood donor list centres and two students counseling centres are run in Maharashtra. There is a Samskar Kendra in Nagpur and a free coaching centre in Buldhana under Vidarbha Prant. Blood donor list centre is being run at Bhilai of Chhattisgarh for the last three years. Free coaching classes are conducted in Chanpa and a pyau (drinking water centre) is run at Kavardha. Similarly a Samskar Kendra is run at Bhubaneswar and a free coaching centre at Cuttack in Orissa.
Free coaching classes are being conducted at Dibrugarh and Dhubri in Assam for the last five years. There is a coaching centre at Nagar. There is a library in Silchar. There are seven reading rooms, 12 Swadhyaya Mandals and seven blood donor list centres in Jharkhand. A total of 34 projects at 23 places are run in Jharkhand alone. Similarly nine free coaching classes, 23 reading rooms, a Bal Samskar Kendra, four computer training centres and four blood donation centres are run in Bihar. There are a total of 31 projects at 24 places in the state.
There is an internet library at Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh. A total of seven projects at seven places are run in the state. There are six Swadhyaya Mandals and four blood donor list centres in Uttarakhand.
All these projects have not only given a new outlook to the students studying in colleges but also helped the needy people of the society. The objective of all the service projects run by the Parishad is to develop social harmony and also to help all to get equal opportunities of development. All these projects have achieved cooperation of the students as well as the local society. There is a planning to increase the number of service projects in coming years.
(The writer is central office secretary of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad and can be contacted at 3, Marble Arch, Senapati Bapat Marg, Opposite Matunga Road (W.R.) Mahim, Mumbai-400 016. E-mail: abvpkendra@gmail.com)
