Beginnig of Rural Development Programme
Vivekananda Kendra was established in 1972 after the consecration of Vivekananda Rock Memorial off KanyaKumari,to train, motivate and utilize young men and women in nation building activities.Accordingly educational activities were first taken up in the border state of Arunachal Pradesh. Mananeeya Eknathji Ranade, founder of the Kendra, felt that welfare activities should be taken in and around KanyaKumari to come in closer contact with the local people. This led to starting in 1978, 9 Pre-Primary schools and a Medial centre with a van, thus forming a nucleus for the present large scale activities.
In 1982 the Kendra decided to expand its service activities in the southern districts of Tamilnadu. The local people and well wishers of all over the country and the Kendra workers were of one mind that Rural development activities with a cultural thrust should be started immediately. The idea received the blessings of Swami Ranganathananda of Sri RamaKrishna Math,and Swami Chidbhavananda of Sree RamaKrishna Tapovanam. The aim is to motivate our people to adhere to and nurture the cherished values of our Sanatana Dharma to prevent alien elements weaning away our young men and women from our cultural moorings.Thus was born the project RURAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME.
In 1982 the Kendra decided to expand its service activities in the southern districts of Tamilnadu. The local people and well wishers of all over the country and the Kendra workers were of one mind that Rural development activities with a cultural thrust should be started immediately. The idea received the blessings of Swami Ranganathananda of Sri RamaKrishna Math,and Swami Chidbhavananda of Sree RamaKrishna Tapovanam. The aim is to motivate our people to adhere to and nurture the cherished values of our Sanatana Dharma to prevent alien elements weaning away our young men and women from our cultural moorings.Thus was born the project RURAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME.
Method
India lives in villages. She cannot advance if villages lag behind. The community projects launched by the Government several years ago aim at changing the face of villages by providing schools,roads, dispensaries, wells, tanks, seeds, implements, and other amenities. They are bringing about a wide awakening among the village-folk and the day is not far off when an Indian village will not be a picture of poverty,ugliness and ignorance but a unique model of opulence, beauty, and enlightment.There are a number of attractive things in life, but if they do not fit in with the master-plan that we prepare for the accomplishment of the mission , we must refuse them, however good they may be. Thus, we must possess the discrimination of selection and election in life.
Vivekananda Kendra at the suggestion of the local people took up a survey of nearly ten thousand villages in the Districts of KanyaKumari,Tirunelveli, Thoothukudi, Ramanathapuram, Virudhunagar and Sivagangai. Priority villages were selected, preferred activities were chosen and donors found.
Ours is a cadre-based organization in which the dedicated life-workers and the whole-timers form the very backbone of the organization. A second outstanding feature of the Kendra is that it is a spiritually oriented missionary organization. In such an organization the accent is on the total surrendering by the constituents of whatever they possess, may be wealth, knowledge, power, and other multifarious energies.
The Workers
The worker puts his heart and soul into the work and his whole life is dedicated to the organization. He completely identifies himself with the organization and he has no separate existence or goal apart from it. He himself becomes the organization and the work of the organization is his work, and his duty of service is the objective of the organization. He merges himself in the organization and the most significant segment of his life is utilized for the extra organizational work.
To man all these activities, Vivekananda Kendra has spared some of its whole time workers called Jivan Vratis. These workers in turn have trained local persons as social workers, Pre-Primary school Teachers, etc. At the centres, a large number of local volunteers are also involved.
