Ramakrishna Mission takes stock of development projects at AGM

The 107th Annual General Meeting of the Ramakrishna Mission was held at Belur Math on Sunday, December 18 at 3.30 pm.

The Government of West Bengal selected Ramakrishna Mission for the Banga Bibhushan Award, 2015, in recognition of its service to the betterment of society.

‘Sound of Joy’, an animation film based on Swami Vivekananda’s childhood, produced as a project by the Headquarters to commemorate Swami Vivekananda’s 150th birth anniversary, was adjudged the Best Animation Film by the jury of the 62nd National Film Awards.

150th birth anniversaries of Swami Saradananda, Swami Trigunatitananda and Sister Nivedita were 

celebrated in different centres by conducting various celebrations.

Several developments that took place in the year 2015 in the various Centres of the Mission were given recognition.

Many developments took place in the Centres in the field of education. The University of Calcutta granted permission to start Vivekananda Centre for Research to conduct M.Phil/Ph.D courses at the Narendrapur centre. ‘Swami Vivekananda Centre for Multi-disciplinary Research in Basic Science & Social Sciences’ started to function at Vivekananda Centenary College of Rahara centre. Ranchi Morabadi centre started Secondary and Senior Secondary courses affiliated to National Institute of Open Schooling.

Some notable projects in the field of medicine include the Mobile Medical Outreach camps conducted by the Agartala centre in the slums of Agartala Municipal Corporation; telemedicine facility at Lucknow hospital; and construction of a six-storey diagnostic and cardiac care centre building by the Seva Pratishthan in Kolkata.

In the field of rural development, several exceptional projects were carried out. The Narainpur centre converted 10 Anganwadis to one-teacher pre-basic school. The Narendrapur centre initiated a ‘green college’ at Santuri village of Purulia district, covering 12 courses focusing on various issues of green sector. Purulia Vidyapith installed 11 tubewells in eight villages and conducted six agricultural camps.

Ranchi (Morabadi) centre constructed seven recharge tanks, 27 percolation tanks, a gravity irrigation system and two bora-bunds for soil and water conservation and irrigation. Sargachhi centre constructed a greenhouse and a seed net house for demonstration and production of high value crops. Finally, Silchar centre started a tailoring training centre for women at village Maynagarh in Cachar district.

The different centres of the Mission took forward the Swachchh Bharat Abhiyan  by holding cleanliness programmes. Some centres, such as the Chennai Students’ Home held five cleaning programmes in which several streets and other public places were cleaned. 

The Mangaluru centre, meanwhile, launched a cleanliness drive on February 2015 and conducted 40 cleaning programmes in 40 different parts of the city. The Lokasiksha Parishad of Narendrapur centre – along with UNICEF launched a WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) programme in Purulia.

In 2015, the Mission undertook Welfare work by way of providing scholarships to poor students and pecuniary help to the old, sick and destitute. Over 22.70 lakh were benefitted by the work, for which Rs. 16.85 crore has been spent.

Medical service have been rendered to over 61.02 lakh people through 10 hospitals, 77 dispensaries, 42 mobile medical units and 910 medical camps, for which Rs. 191.48 crore were spent.Nearly 3.12 lakh students studying in its educational institutions – from kindergarten to university level, non-formal education centres, night schools, coaching classes. A sum of Rs. 284.96 crore is spent on educational work.

A number of rural and tribal development projects were undertaken with a total expenditure of Rs. 58.66 crore benefiting about 86.51 lakh rural people.

The Mission and Math also undertook several relief and rehabilitation programmes in different parts of the country involving an expenditure of Rs. 36.78 crore, benefiting 7.28 lakh people of 2.21 lakh families.