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In Part 1 of this series, we started looking at the service activities of ashram in the field of Education. Before we move onto other spheres of the ashram activities, let me take you through their innovative approaches to inculcate a spirit for knowledge amongst various sections of less-fortunate in and around the Ashram locality. 

Sri Sarada Creche is a loving centre for tiny tots. Between the dawn and dusk, the poor village women have to labor a lot for earning the two square meals for the family. Many of us overlook the fact that not only a woman managing director of a company in Indian cities require the crèche to bring up her kids but even these poor village women who toil outside home from morning to evening need such help. In fact due to this competing interest, the poor village women is not able to give adequate attention to the heath care of her kids. Mal-nutrition of children is common defect prevailing in many villages. Sri Sarada Creche was started to help the educational, health, nutritional, and cultural needs of the village poor children between the age group of 3-5. In this crèche, three R’s is taught in play way method apart from games and co-curricular activities. Periodic medical check-up and immunization are taken care of by this crèche and sensitizes parents about the health and hygiene needs. Many such crèches that specifically takes care of tiny tots from poor families both in village and urban slums would go a long way in reducing infant mortality. 

“Balak Sangh” is a forum run for young village children. This provides value education through various play way method. Also nutritious food is provided. The whole philosophy behind providing value education to young children is to properly rear the children, who would become great assets for the nation when they grow up. In this small way, Ashram tries to safeguard the future generation from the obnoxious clutches of mass media and corruption of the impressionable young minds by useless trivial matters. Nowadays there is no Moral Instruction (MI) class for primary and middle school children and thus the formal schooling does not take the responsibility to inculcate good principles in young minds. 

Reading habit is the door to acquire huge wealth of knowledge. In order to cultivate the reading habit in the minds of rural children and youth, Seva Pratishtan runs a library, a knowledge resource centre. Ashram’s field experiences and knowledge are also documented which could be used by persons who have special area of interest. The knowledge bank consists of more than 5000 books and it helps trainers and trainees in various fields of activities. Reference books and CDs are also available. The villagers could also get a lot of information for their fieldwork from this knowledge centre. 

Earlier we went through the details on the free home for poor girls run by Sri Sarada Sevalayam where in those who could not have been taken directly into formal schooling were given informal education before inducting them into formal schooling. This is run for poor village girl children. There is a “Non-Formal Education Centre” run by Ashram for youth in villages both men and women who were diverged from the stream of education because of the poor economic condition from their early childhood itself and were taken into child labour. Through informal tutoring, training in three Rs with cultural inputs is given to these youth. Through this scheme, integrated and comprehensive knowledge in reading and writing skills are inculcated. Tailoring is taught as a mean for self-employment. Values for leading peaceful life are also imparted. Sometimes exposure trips are also arranged for wider knowledge. 

The interesting thing to note here is that Ashram does not just believe in formal education alone. It has designed effective informal approaches through its innovations that not only enables the beneficiaries to become literate and aware of things but also makes them really ‘educated’. Most often our formal education stops at making us literate and does not go beyond to inculcate & nurture values and confidence in students. Teaching values, culture, and self-confidence cut across all the educational activities of the Ashram. 

Apart from the above activities in the sphere of education, Ashram runs Sri Ramakrishna Vidyalaya Gurukulam (SRKV Gurukulam, a residential Matriculation Higher Secondary School), Sri Sarada Vidyalaya (a day scholar matriculation school), and Sri Sarada College of Education (for women only). Firstly, we must go through the profile of SRKV Gurukulam, which the author saw in a small house at its inception stage in Vridachalam couple of decades back. The miraculous growth of this institution with well planned, efficiently systematized proven Gurukula system has really achieved a great success in shaping thousands of children in and around this area in the last two decades. SRKV Gurukulam has gained reputation for its progressive approach, commitment, and excellence. It provides promising future with leadership skills by giving confidence to the students to boldly face the challenges of the world. Loving parental care is given by 40 well trained Sanyasin sisters. This Gurukulam strengthens IQ, EQ, and SQ based on unshakable ancient cultural heritage. It protects the young minds from maddening addictions and mental distortions. On the metric scale, this Gurukulam has produced students with District ranks in public examinations and produced 100% pass results with I class continuously year after year. 

More than 2000 students are studying in Sri Sarada Vidyalaya and serves as a panacea for the lower and middle class people to send their children to an inexpensive English medium school. This has emerged as the best school offering value oriented English education in this backward taluk and year after year this school has produced 100% result given that the children do not have strong backing at home from teaching perspective. Guest lectures and exposure visits make the students aware of the world around them and also bring out their inherent talents in them. 

Asharm is inspired by Swami Vivekananda’s belief that education alone will bring renaissance to our country. Hence, Ashram always focused its attention on providing value-based education to various segments of society. It staunchly believes that it is its duty to work in the field of education to create good generation. Through Sri Sarada College of Education, a B.Ed college for women, the Ashram intends to produce the ‘Dharmic Acharyas’ (distinguished teachers) to train the students’ community. The ancient proverb, “Pokku katru koduppavanukku vathiyar thozhil” i.e. the teacher job is for the one who teaches the direction/path – has unfortunately distorted today to – ‘pokku atravanukku vathiyar thozhil” i.e. the teacher job is for the one who does not have any means/talents to live. Although the proverb is distorted, there is an iota of truth in it. In such circumstances, the Ashram takes this step to train atleast 100 teachers every year through its B.Ed College with the training focused on teaching curricular, cultural, and value-oriented education. The facilities that would be available in this B.Ed College are guidance by well-trained selfless Sanyasins, well experienced Lecturers and Professors, full-fledged laboratories, specially designed library and good hostel facilities. This College would be run for the women by the women. 

Before we conclude our pen portrait on the educational activities of the Ashram, it is important to touch upon two other activities. To raise a nation to its lofty goals human resource is the greatest resource. This human energy has to be channelised towards constructive purpose. Special training programs are conducted by the Personality Development Training Cell to different groups of people such as school students, teachers, women, families, men, college students, village women, and farmers through Capacity Building Programmes. During the summer vacation, Holiday Camps mainly for village students are conducted in the serene atmosphere of the ashram In the Holiday Camps, training is given on English grammar, spoken English, Yoga, Moral demeanors, Folk songs, Drama, Calligraphy, and Handicrafts. 

In the forthcoming Parts, we shall know more about Ashram’s activities in the area of medical service, water resources management & agricultural development (organic farming, soil testing, seed bank), vocational training and training for rural development, and emergency relief operations.  

(to be continued)