AKHIL Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha meeting of Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram was held at Vivekananda Kendra in Kanyakumari recently. The meeting was jointly inaugurated by Kalyan Ashram president Shri Jagdeoram Oraon, vice president Shri Moren Singh Purti and Shri Jaleshwar Brahma and general secretary Shri Gunwant Singh Kothari. A total of 146 delegates from different parts of the country attended the meeting.
Shri Balakrishnan of Vivekananda Kendra and Sushri Nivedita Bhide, vice president of Vivekananda Rock Memorial, were also present on the occasion and addressed the delegates. A resolution was passed on minimum support price for forest produces and rights of Vanvasis on forest produces. Shri SK Kaul from Delhi moved the resolution after a detail study of the forest products, mines and minerals. Shri Gunvant Singh Kothari presented the annual report.
Organising secretary Shri Somaiyajulu presented the progress report. According to the report till today the Kalyan Ashram has 16,026 service projects at 11,526 places. It has contacted 48,888 villages in 314 districts and 2,128 blocks, where Vanvasis live. The number of full time workers has grown to 1,405. Today 1,18,611 students are seeking education through the Kalyan Ashram projects. During the last year a total of 14,50,660 patients were treated through health projects. Beneficiaries of the Self-Help Groups rose to 28,340 while the beneficiaries of Village Development are 9,991. Beneficiaries of agriculture training are 3,260 and the beneficiaries of vocational training are 920. The beneficiaries of Eklavya Khelkud Centres are 1,829.
All the national incharge of different activities including Smt Madhvi Joshi (Women), Shri Shaktipad Thakur (Sports), Shri Vishnukant (Hitarakasha), Shri Narayandeo (Sampark), Shri Chandrakant Rawlani (Town working), Shri Arjundas Khatri (Finance), Shri Gajanan Bapat (Vyavastha), Shri Hanuman Narayan (Publicity), Shri Pramod Pethkar (Publication), Shri Prakash Kamath (Gram Vikas) Shri Ram Chandraiya (Education) also presented their reports.
The meeting concluded with an inspiriting appeal by president Shri Jagdeoram Oraon to cover all the Vanvasis in coming years. The birth centenary of Kalyan Ashram founder the late Bala Saheb Despande will be celebrated next year on large scale. Next meeting will be held at Guwahati in the month of September 2011. (FOC)
