“THE ultimate objective of all our service activities, started in 1979 in an organised manner all over the country, is to strengthen the Hindu society. The sewa activities have now assumed the form of a big movement and there is hardly any section of the society where the RSS workers have not started any welfare activity. Even then, we have yet to go miles and have to ensure that not a single person of the society remains deprived,” said RSS Sarkaryavah of RSS Shri Bhaiyaji Joshi. He was addressing a meeting of women activists involved in service activities all over the country. The meeting was organised by Sewa Vibhag of RSS in Nagpur from August 21 to 22 under the banner of Akhil Bharatiya Mahila Sewa Prakalp. A total of 127 women delegates representing 45 women organisations participated in the two-day meeting.
Pramukh Sanchalika of Rashtra Sevika Samiti Pramilatai Medhe, Akhil Bharatiya Samanvya Pramukh Gitatai Gunde, Akhil Bharatiya Sah Sewa Pramukh of RSS Shri Suhasrao Hiremath and national convenor of Rashtriya Sewa Bharati Shri Sunder Laxman were also present on the occasion.
Referring to the activists working among women Shri Bhaiyaji said there is a need to talk to the women and understand their real problems. “Some women are so much deprived and distressed that they cannot explain their woes in words. We have to find out the reasons of their problems even through the mute language. There is no lack of women problems. What we have to do is to generate awareness and trust to resolve them,” he said.
The RSS Sarkaryavah praised the vision and activities of several women organisations including the Rashtra Sevika Samiti, Bharatiya Stree Shakti, etc. He made it clear that just creating huge organisational set up is not the real sewa, the real sewa is to find out the problems of women and start concrete activities to resolve them. The work must show results, he added.
Pramilatai Medhe said since the objective of all our sewa activities is to strengthen the nation and the society we achieve good results of our activities. She said service does not mean just fulfilling all requirements of the needy people, rather changing the mentality of the beneficiaries. She said since women are a significant part of the nation they should come forward in good number to serve it.
Gitatai Gunde said the awareness towards many of the essential issues concerning the nation has increased and women are now more self-reliant than previously. She said since women have to follow most of the social traditions, they play a vital role in preserving and promoting the culture. She stressed the need to initiate effective campaign against human trafficking, addiction, female feticide, terrorism, naxalism and separatism, which have today assumed a fatal turn. She said the commercilisation and consumerism have increased the exploitation of women and it has today emerged as a global problem.
Highlighting the health problems of rural women, Dr Urmila Kshirsagar of Vivekananda Medical Mission, said the health problems of rural women are more critical than the urban women. The reason of this, she said, is poverty, imbalanced diet, lack of cleanliness, illiteracy, insecurity, marriage in minor age, superstitions, etc. “But despite all these problems the ‘spiritual health’ of our Indian women is better than the west,” she added. She said it is spiritualism that encourages the women to work for other needy people of the society.
Dr Nirupama Deshpande spoke on growing impact of Self-Help Groups (SHGs) among women across the country. She said there was a time when women normally confined to their houses, but now with their involvement in SHGs they have not only come out from their houses but also started playing a key role in resolving social problems. SHGs not only generated self-confidence among women but also made them self-reliant, she said.
Dr Nandita Pathak of Udyamita Vidyapeeth, Chitrakoot, stressed the need to educate women about environment protection. She said the present model of development has promoted unemployment, discrimination, pollution and migration on large scale. Therefore, we need to develop a new model of development which suits to our needs, she said.
Nirmalatai Apte of Bharatiya Stree Shakti discussed the problems faced by the women while doing social service. Akhil Bharatiya Karyavahika of Rashtra Sevika Samiti Shantakkatai spoke about the challenges of fast changing lifestyle. Dr Manisha Kothekar educated the workers on the importance of networking.
(By Sangita Sachdev)
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