Dayananda Saraswati opens student centers in tribal areas

NEW YORK: The All India Movement (AIM) for Seva promoted by Swami Dayananda Saraswati founder of Arsha Vidya Gurukulam, Saylorsburg, PA, has opened student centers in 15 states in rural and tribal areas across India to prevent school drop outs and increase job opportunities.

Briefing media at Chennai Garden restaurant in New York City on Oct 7, Swami Dayananda Saraswati, the founder-trustee, said the nation-wide movement formed in 2000 is now reaching out to 10 million people in rural and tribal areas across 15 States from Karna Prayag to Kanyakumari. The objective of AIM for Seva is to make education accessible to every child in the inaccessible tribal and rural areas through the concept of chatralayas (student homes), he said.

The independent public charitable trust has 122 projects now - 79 chatralayas, 20 schools with 18,000 students and five hospitals and 17 healthcare centers, 11 medical clinics including seven mobile medical units treating about 200,000 patients every year.

"Each student home is located near existing secondary schools and each student is provided with clean living environment, nutritious food, regular health check up, books and stationeries, vocational training, special coaching classes, after-school activities and soft skills all free of cost to help them come up in life. We need a donation of less than a dollar a day to take care of one student," Swami Dayananda said.

Students grow in a safe and healthy environment that encourages competition of secondary and higher education and supports students as they grow from consumer to contributor. Many students who have joined college return to the student homes on weekends to act as mentors to inmates of the home, he added. "Because of the care taken, school drop out rates dropped to 10 percent in chatralayas compared to 60 percent in tribal and rural areas. We were able to do this thanks to a large battalion of volunteers and local support groups," he said.

In recognition of stellar services rendered in India to provide education to the weaker sections, the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of United Nations has accorded a special consultative status to the movement, he added. The Department of Posts, Government of India released a special day cover to mark the occasion of inauguration of 75th student home in Palani in Tamil Nadu.

Swami Dayananda said the student homes make education accessible to every economically weaker child in rural, tribal areas and remote regions and works towards creating better job opportunities to students by imparting vocational education.
In addition, AIM for Seva is involved in providing basic healthcare to people living in remote areas of the country, he added.

Students undergo a strict daily routine that includes compulsory yoga, prayer, personal reading time, supervised study and play. Breakfast, packed lunch and dinner is served to every student. The students are imparted value lessons, culture and fine arts, first aid, extra academic coaching and counseling and guidance. Several large corporations make an annual commitment to the activities of the trust as part of their corporate social responsibility, he added.

L. Shanti Kumar, board of trustee of AIM for Seva and founder-trustee of Kanchi Kamakoti Seva Foundation, said The Aim for Seva is planning to hold fundraisers across the US and Canada to collect donations that are tax exempted both in the US and in India.

India Post News Service