Awakening the potential of students through hostels
Virag Pachpore
INSPIRED by the electrifying vision of Swami Vivekananda, a number of social and patriotic organisations have dedicated themselves to the task of national reconstruction. The major stakeholders in this task are Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Rashtra Sevika Samiti, Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram (VKA), Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), Vidya Bharati (VB), Vivekananda Kendra (VK) and Sewa Bharati. All these organisations share a common thought-process, ideology and philosophy, which is aimed at achieving all-round development of the young generation.
They have set up schools, hostels, single teacher schools, hospitals, health care units, mobile health centres, coaching centres for students, self-help groups for women and so on. All these organisations together conduct over 1.5 lakh such multi-faceted service activities catering to the needs of millions and millions of neglected, deprived and exploited sections of Indian society.
The ultimate aim of these activities is to instill the confidence in the masses that they eventually overcome the need for external interventions. The aim, as noted social activists and former Akhil Bharatiya Sewa Pramukh of RSS K Suryanarayana Rao says, is to ensure that none feels neglected or uncared or handicapped; to raise the self-respect of each individual; to free society from all distortions; to bring about harmony and social enrichment so that all may contribute towards all-round development of the society and national uplift.
One of the major activities of these organisations is to run hostels for the students desirous of pursuing higher studies. These students, obviously coming from the poor strata of the society, can hardly afford to pay for hostel expenses and as such had to give up further education. The activists of Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram took the initiative in this direction and set up hostels for students coming from Vanvasi areas to help them pursue higher studies. In fact, the very beginning of VKA way back in 1952 was marked by starting a hostel for Vanvasi boys at Jashpur Nagar in erstwhile Madhya Pradesh (now Chhattisgarh). Today, VKA runs 225 hostels (181 for boys and 44 for girls) accommodating 7774 students including 6166 boys and 1608 girls coming from 4684 villages of the remote and Vanvasi dominated areas.
The tremendous change that has been brought about in the overall personality of these young students living in these chhatravas as these hostels are commonly known, is illustrated in their behaviour, character and their approach to the social issues. Their behaviour at home and at schools becomes more cultured and refined to the extent of influencing their parents and surroundings. Not only this, they become the centres for social change. For example, the Sewa Bharati Balak Chhatravas, situated in the lush green surrounding of Kosamdih in Dindori district of Madhya Pradesh is not just a hostel of the Gond janjati boys. It is more than what meets the eye of a first time visitor. It is a multi-dimensional project which includes a temple, a residential school, mobile dispensary, health care unit, gaushala, library and a meditation room for the inmates of the hostel. It is the centre of social change.
The students opting to stay at these chhatravas develop good habits like touching the feet of their parents in obeisance every day and this simple practice has resulted in improving and bettering the relationships within their families. They also experience a never-before kind of self-confidence. Once a group of Naga students staying in VHP’s chhatravas at Haflong in Assam, faced the NSCN terrorists who had come to collect ‘toll’ from the Naga boys in their native village. These boys faced them so effectively and fearlessly that the NSCN men had to leave without collecting the ‘toll’.
The North-eastern region of the country is very sensitive for a number of reasons. That it shares a long border with India’s neighbours is one of these reasons, but that apart it is constantly confronted with neglect of the successive governments, internal strife and violence, emotionally high feelings of separatism and alienation from the mainland and of course, militancy and, illegal presence of Bangladeshi Muslims from across the border.
It is against this volatile background that these organisations, especially the VKA, VHP and Vidya Bharati, have put their feet firmly rooted in the soil. And this was possible only because of the positive transformation in the life of those students who stayed with them in the chhatravas. The VKA runs 23 chhatravas in the northeast for the boys and 9 for the girls. A total of 568 boys and 207 girls coming from 502 Vanvasi dominated villages stay in these hostels.
Says Nshikant Joshi, who is in charge of these hostels: “The main objective of establishing these hostels was to inculcate and instill in the young students coming from these remote and inaccessible areas a sense of belonging, a pride of being Indian and an ambition to be a worthy son of Mother India. They are as intelligent as any other Indian. However, there is an express need to mould them through the man-making process. These hostels are exactly doing this with the help of dedicated band of activists.”
The residential school set up by Vidya Bharati at Haflong situated at the tri-junction of Assam, Manipur and Nagaland, offers a unique example of how the students are molded into responsible citizens of the country. The local people too, offered their help rejecting the government offer for the plot of land that was earmarked for the school. VKA’s school at Tayning tells the similar story. Here the Christian Nagas prefer to send their children to the ‘Hindu’ school because of the samskars being inculcated in the young ones. They have no objection in singing Saraswati Vandana.
Former RSS Sarkaryavah the late HV Seshadri said, “Awakening the divine potential of students through samskars is the tradition with the Hindu society going by centuries. The chhatravas are taking forward that tradition in accordance to the changing times and requirements. These samskars are useful in strengthening the character of the students, help them conquer wrong habits, weakness of body and mind, and imbibe in their minds that they are the inseparable part of the larger Hindu society.
The Students Experience in Inter-state Living (SEIL) of the ABVP provides another dimension of this inculturation and transformation of the young minds. Under this programme the ABVP pitched upon the impressionable and unpolluted student community to pioneer the movement of their emotional integration with the rest of the country. Their slogan Alag Bhasha alag vesh, fir bhi apna ek desh, has inspired many a student to dedicate themselves to the cause of national uplift and social service.
The hostels and other related activities undertaken by these organisations in the remote and Vanvasi dominated areas have dispelled the notion of cultural alienation frustrating the anti-national designs and machinations of the forces inimical to India. The VHP played a crucial role in making them realise and experience that they belong to the greater Hindu society.
The same story of transforming young minds is repeated in Vanvasi-dominated states like Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh besides the entire north-eastern states. Such transformed youth power can bring about a positive change in the country. The youth is awakened and this awareness is visible in the incidents that are troubling the psyche of Indian society. To accomplish the objective of making India a world leader who could be better instruments of change than these youths full of positive ideas, idealism, patriotism and commitment to society?
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