Swami Vivekananda envisaged that new India will emerge from cottages, farms, small factories with which masses of India are organically related. The Swami gave a call to the youth to work amongst the masses to bring them at par with the people of the developed countries of the world. He had a vision that new India would grow combining the spiritual heritage of the East and the science and technology of the West. The work will be done by the young people with a spirit of selfless service. From the lectures, letters and some of the books he wrote, we find that Swamiji had a comprehensive plan for community development, both urban and rural, integrating the best of the East and the West. His principles of action in this respect were based on the following ideas:

BRIEF HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

Pre-independence period

From the very inception the Ramakrishna Mission tried to organize its activities in the rural areas based on the principles mentioned above. In fact, before the Mission was established as a registered organization, rural development work in a way was started by Swami Akhandananda as early as in 1894 in remote villages in the State of Rajasthan. Swami Akhandananda, one of the direct disciples of Sri Ramakrishna, while moving about in the area as a wandering monk, observed the distressed conditions of the rural people caused by their various prejudices and ignorance and felt very strongly for doing something for them. Having a strong desire to help these people, he wrote to Swami Vivekananda in America seeking his permission. In reply Swamiji wrote to him that the poor, the ignorant, the dullard, the sufferers - these be his gods and that service rendered to them is the best religious practice for him. He advised Akhandananda saying, 'Go to the huts of the depressed people of the town of Khetri, preach religion to them and teach them verbally other things like geography, etc. Seize opportunities to go to other places, instruct people, teach people.'

Being inspired by Swamiji, Swami Akhandanandaji began his work in Khetri with some financial help from the Maharaja of the State. As Swamiji always put emphasis on educating the masses, Akhandanandaji started teaching the poor children in these remote villages. He also moved from door to door requesting the parents to send their children to the school started by him. He also tried to remove various prejudices of the rural folk and integrate them into the mainstream of national life. Subsequently, under the leadership of Swami Akhandanandaji, a long-term educational development work was started in 1897 in Mahula, in the district of Murshidabad. In fact, his experiments on rural welfare became the path-finder for the entire service programme of the Ramakrishna Mission during the following decades. During the early years of the Ramakrishna Mission several innovative experiments were initiated by the self-sacrificing monks under extremely difficult circumstances. Some such programmes are given below:

In 1927 a young monk Swami Sambhavananda initiated welfare work amongst the poor and illiterate people in Coorg in Mysore. He initiated educational and health programme for the poor villagers with the help of magic lanterns. He used to give illustrative talks to the people moving from village to village. He established Ramakrishna Sarada Ashrama in Ponampet in Coorg. Besides educational and health work, his major achievement was in the area of economic rehabilitation of the poor people. He found that villagers collected honey from forest areas but their method of collection and processing was not scientific. He developed a new method which is now known as 'Coorg Standard Hive' and also gave hives to the people for scientific methods of collecting honey. He also organized a number of honey producers' cooperatives so that honey growers could collectively improve their socio-economic conditions.

Another very interesting experiment was done by Swami Prabhananda (Kataki) in the area of Khasi and Jayantia hills in difficult circumstances for promoting education amongst the tribal children. In organizing the educational programmes, he took special care to protect them from the impact of Western education and culture and, on the other, encourage them to respect their own religion and indigenous way of living. Besides, he also integrated the educational institutions into the mainstream of Indian livelihood systems. He established a large number of primary schools in these areas and a model high school at Cherapunji. It is now one of the best educational centres in the state of Meghalaya. Besides school education, he also initiated various rural crafts programme for the rehabilitation of the local people. For organizing 'these activities he had to continuously fight against the Christian missionaries.

Again, Swami Ashokananda, initiated development work amongst the poor cobblers in Habiganj, in the district of Sylhet which is now in Bangladesh. Being "un-touchables" they used to be looked down upon by the higher castes and they used to live in very wretched conditions. Swami Ashokananda tried to organize these poor people through non-formal education, health awareness through personal contact, group discussions, etc. Handling of leather being the major occupation of these cobblers, he tried to improve the quality of the production by sending three young workers for training in Calcutta. On their return he organized the local 'untouchables' under the banner of a co-operative society. He helped to establish a shoe factory and sales outlets for the leather products of these people. Another very noble work he did was to improve their image amongst the so-called high caste people. He changed the family titles of these people from 'Muchi', 'Chamar', etc. into 'Rishi'. This change of surname has helped these people to improve their social image. These activities revolutionized the life and living of the people and helped them to come back to the national mainstream.

Between 1926 and 1967 Swami Istananda started educational development work amongst the poor and isolated villagers of Sagar Island in the district of 24-Parganas. As a worker of the Contai Ramakrishna Mission Sevashrama, he used to visit Sagar Island to look after the landed property donated to Contai branch of the Mission. These visits endeared him to the local people and they wanted regular Mission activities in this isolated island of Sundarban. The Mission authorities eventually agreed to the proposal and the Swami helped in establishing an independent branch centre in Sagar Island. He moved from village to village to spread education. Not only did he establish a branch centre at Manasadwip, but he also helped starting several schools in this Island under difficult circumstances. Because of his dynamic leadership, he was very much involved with the people in all their problems. The most important aspect of his work was his personal relationship with the people. People used to seek his advice to solve their personal problems including family conflicts and land disputes. He was an institution by himself. He was so popular that after his passing away, the local people themselves have established several institutions after his name.

As a result of his educational endeavour, the literacy rate of Sagar Island was above the rate of literacy of West Bengal as a whole. His mission to propagate literacy was not merely to make them literate but also to enable them to lead a dignified life. Some of the early experiments of the Ramakrishna Mission in the area of rural development have been mentioned here in brief by way of illustration as how this important work was initiated by the self-sacrificing monks of the Ramakrishna Order. If we analyse the instances already described, we come to the following conclusions:

First of all, being inspired by Swamiji's call for renunciation and service, the monks of the Order did not hesitate to jump in uncharted areas and faced various threats and challenges almost single-handedly. In course of time, of course, they requested local workers to help them in their work. There was total involvement in undertaking these experiments. Particularly, this was the period when India was under the British rule which always obstructed all constructive programmes undertaken by the independent, spirited monks of the Ramakrishna Order. But with dogged conviction they went ahead with their mission. Secondly, the early experiments focussed mainly on educational and health care. But during this phase the aim was not mainly to establish educational institutions but also to initiate a process of learning and awareness so that people could realize their own potentialities.

Thirdly, having no external resources, they totally depended on community support and community resources. It is really astonishing that during the time when people were much poorer than what they are today, they never hesitated to come forward with help to help themselves. Besides the community support natural resources of the area were adequately harnessed so that people were not to depend upon external support mechanism to a large extent.

Last but not least, despite having a common approach based on Swamiji's ideals, each experiment had its own distinctiveness. No two programmes were exactly alike. This speaks of the creative initiative of the leaders of the movement and also their ability to inspire the spirit of innovation among the masses.

These experiments further proved that if man-to-man relationship is established based on total unselfishness, the hidden potential of the person offering help and the people receiving the help could be unfolded to an unlimited extent. All these are eloquent testimonies to Swamiji's vision of development.

Post-independence activities

So far, we have narrated some outstanding examples of rural development work initiated by the Mission in the early years of its existence and particularly during the pre-independence period. Now let us look into some of the experiments made during the post-independence period in different parts of the country.

With independence, the national scenario underwent a rapid change. On the one hand, we became free which was a matter of joy for every Indian; but it was also a time of agony because of the partition of the country. Millions of people had to cross the border, from both the eastern and western parts of India, as a result of this traumatic political development. The Ramakrishna Mission had a long history of relief work. Naturally, it became now involved in work of relief and rehabilitation of the refugees in a big way, sometime with the government help and sometime without any. But along with this development work in different parts of India, the Mission also took up much bigger experiments in the field of rural development. It is very difficult to give in brief the entire gamut of rural development work of the Mission, for during the post-independence period the work has expanded its scope both in terms of coverage of the people, area served, and in respect of diversities and innovations.

One thing at this stage can be said that every Mission centre, particularly those which are very close to the rural areas, had to do for the rural people something more than just the work of education and relief. Almost every centre started medical units and some formal and non-formal education centres for the rural people. Particularly, rural development programme became almost mandatory for all the Mission centres during the Presidentship of Swami Vireswaranandaji Maharaj, the Tenth President of the Order . Under his patronage, rural development work was started in a very big way in the whole country. In the following few paragraphs attempt will be made to give in brief some of the major experiments conducted by the centres of the Mission:

'Janasiksha Mandira' of the Ramakrishna Mission Saradapith initiated work among the rural masses as early as in 1949 by opening Adult Literacy Centres and arranging magic lantern talks, organizing the youth groups both in villages as well as at its headquarters at Belur Math, library movement, craft activities, etc. Over the years it has extended its activities in the field of self-employment, vocational training, educational programmes for working children, prevention of environment pollution, organization of 'Vivek Bahini' with the children and such other activities with government and popular support. 'Janasiksha Mandir' is working in four districts of West Bengal and, while working in the villages, it tries to work through local organizations in order to promote local leadership and sustainable development.

The 'Ramakrishna Mission Samaj Sevak Sikshan Mandir' is another wing of the Ramakrishna Mission Saradapith established in the year 1986 with the encouragement and support of Swami Vireswaranandaji Maharaj. It seeks to train a group of dedicated community development workers who will not only look after their own employment but will also help in creating employment for the other village people. For this purpose this institution is imparting training both in general leadership development based on Swamiji's philosophy and also various vocational skills suited to rural areas. During the last 11 years, it has trained 225 young boys who are now engaged in rural development work and self-employment not only in the different districts of West Bengal but also in other states. Majority of the candidates of this institution were deputed by some agencies already engaged in the field of rural development. Some also joined the training centre on their own. The ex-trainees of this centre on their turn have established two major institutions viz. 'Vivekananda Palliseva Sanstha' and 'Sarbik Vivekananda Gram Seva Sanstha'. These two organizations by turn are imparting various vocational and general leadership training at the grass roots level. Its ex-trainees are now working in different parts of the country.

Considering the urgency of rural development at the instance of Swami Vireswaranandaji Maharaj, a separate unit called 'Pallimangal' was established at Belur Math in 1980. It is primarily working in Kamarpukur and Jayrambati groups of villages. Its major contribution has been so far in the area of leadership development and promotion of new skills for the rural poor. Its mini-jute mill is one of the most innovative experiments in the area of jute textiles. Besides, its contribution in the field of weaving, making of incense stick, honey processing and various other rural crafts have been significant. It runs a showroom at Belur Math for popularizing products of the village artisans. It has generated employment for more than 1000 men and women in the project villages. Apart from the economic development programme, it runs a Soil Testing Laboratory and Mobile Medical Unit.

'Divyayan', the rural development wing of the Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama, Morabadi Hills, in Bihar is an important landmark in the history of rural development. During the decade-long sufferings of the people plagued by famines during 1956-67, the Mission initiated this experimental project that primarily aims at preparing the young tribal people of the Santhal Parganas in Bihar to undertake development work in their own villages. Its training programme has got two components viz. general leadership development and vocational specialization. When the participants return to their villages, they are expected to take up development programmes, both for their own benefit and for the local villagers. The vocational training comprises crop husbandry, horticulture, poultry, carpentry, bee-keeping, mulberry and 'tashar' cultivation, introduction of new agricultural technology, social forestry and many other related development activities. The ex-trainees have organized themselves under the banner of a sister organization, 'Vivekananda Seva Sanstha', to institutionalize their endeavour. Besides the vocational programmes, 'Divyayan' also promotes among other things - adult literacy, sanitation programme, distribution of quality seeds, library movement, construction of dug wells, low-cost latrines programmes. It works in about sixty tribal villages in the Ranchi District.

Rural and tribal welfare activities in Tripura were initiated by the Mission in 1981, even before a branch centre was established there. At that time, these activities were coordinated by the local private Ashramas associated with the Mission. After the Mission formally started its centre at Agartala and Amtali, all these activities are taken care of by the Mission. The main activities of the rural and tribal development programmes relate to self-employment through skill upgradation and supply of inputs like fertilizers, seeds, equipment, etc. Some Revolving Fund has also been provided to the poor to undertake various projects related to self-employment. After these activities were started in about half a dozen tribal villages, a great deal of change in their socio-economic life is now visible. Now the Mission also runs a regular Vocational Training Institute for tribal youths in addition to its formal education programme.

The Jamtara branch of the Ramakrishna Math, founded in 1921, launched its tribal development programme in the early eighties. It included agricultural assistance in the form of seeds, fertilizers, technical know-how, insecticides to the tribal farmers who were never used to modem methods of cultivation. Eight non-formal schools having about 650 tribal children are another integral part of the tribal programme of this centre. Regular medical clinic is also run by the Ashrama for the tribal people for both general as well as T.B. patients. Its intensive work amongst the T.B. patients have gone a long way in eradicating the disease from many villages. This Ashrama also works in the villages through local tribal youth groups.

The Mysore branch of the Mission is working in three 'taluks' of Mysore district since 1982. Its target areas are inhabited by tribal people who did not have any understanding of modern agriculture. The Ashrama mainly concentrates on the economic development programme for their benefit. The programme includes providing agricultural implements including bullocks and organic and inorganic manures, soil conservation work, reclamation of uncultivable land besides introducing sericulture and horticulture, protecting the farm from elephant by way of electrical fencing, low cost housing, supplying electricity to the tribal house-holds, bee-keeping, fishery, etc. The major agricultural breakthrough achieved in the area is the introduction of 'sprinkler irrigation' for economic and judicious use of water, thus enhancing the horticulture production. The Ashrama also supports education programme for tribal children by helping the construction of school buildings. In the area of health and education, two associate organizations viz. 'Girijan Kalyan Kendra' and 'Vivekananda Youth Movement' are playing the major role.

Rural welfare programmes have been undertaken by the Puri branch of the Mission since 1984. It is working in about 20 villages inhabited by a large number of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe people. The programmes include community health clinic, immunization, family welfare programme, promotion of vegetable production, training in community health activities, providing smokeless chullah, construction of low-cost sanitary latrines, etc. Eye and Dental camps are also regularly organized by the Ashrama for the benefit of rural people.

The Abujhmarh Tribal Service of the Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama, Narainpur, is another landmark in the history of the Mission's drive to serve the rural and tribal people. The Ashrama had started work amongst the Hill Maria of Abujhmarh, a primitive tribal area in the district of Bastar, Madhya Pradesh, in 1985. The Maria or the Hill Maria, as the Abujhmarh tribe is called, is considered the most backward tribe living in an area flanked by the Godavari and the Ganga.

According to Dr K. C. Dubey, the good features and complexion of the Maria have surprised almost all the ethnographers from Griggs to Naranha. Research findings show that these tribes were once the highly cultured Chhindak Nagas of Karnataka who were ruling at Charrakota (the modern Barsur). In a terrible war waged around 1112 AD between King Jajjalla Deva Kallachuri and Someswara-I, the King of Chhindak Nagas, the latter was vanquished and many of his army and retinue fled into the forests of Abujhmarh for good. The wild situation killed all but 50 or 60 members of the immigrants. The progeny of these are the present Marias of Abujhmarh.

No organization including the government could approach these people before the Mission broke their isolationism. The Marias thought that the so-called educated people came to the hills only to exploit them. Hence they always avoided outsiders and at times attacked the workers of external agencies. But the self-sacrificing attitude of the workers of the Ramakrishna Mission won them over in a short time and the Mission was successful in setting up a number of educational and other institutions such as vocational training school, indoor hospital, mobile dispensary, fair price shop complex and agricultural training-cum-demonstration farm. Students of the school are now securing the highest position in district examination and have already earned a good name in the state of Madhya Pradesh. To help the women folk, the Mission is working in cooperation with the Vivekananda Institute of Health Welfare and Social Service. The latter is running girls' hostels and has engaged itself in the construction of roads and culverts in deep forest areas. Recently it has accepted an Integrated Child Development Scheme sponsored by the Madhya Pradesh Government. As a result of this joint initiative, the tribals respond favourably to the Mission's approach of work and they take the Mission into great confidence.

The rural health and welfare projects of the Ramakrishna Mission, Bombay, were started in 1972 to commemorate the Golden Jubilee celebration of the centre. The Work was initiated at village Sakwar, Taluka Vasai, Dist. Thane, about 82 kms. from Bombay. The projects cover about 50,000 tribal people. The activities of the Mission centre comprise health, education, medical service, vocational training, tailoring, promotion of agricultural facilities including the introduction of high-yield crops, residential training for Adivasi youth in agriculture with emphasis on development of leadership qualities, etc. Promotion of cultural activities, classes on Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Movement and observation of important religious festivals also form an integral part of the programme.

The Karimganj branch of the Mission in Assam undertook rural welfare work in the 80s in 15 villages. Among the activities of the centre, mention may be made of vocational training for rural women including tailoring and garment-making, organizatiQn of motivational and awareness-building camps on rural health, nutrition, child care, family welfare, and income generation programme related to horticulture, pisciculture and petty trades. The economic programmes in particular have become popular with the tribal people.

The Ramakrishna Mission Lokasiksha Parishad, one of the biggest rural development units of the Mission, had introduced its programme as early as 1955-56 from Narendrapur, its headquarters. The Parishad started its activities with two initial programmes viz. Adult Education and Child Care. At present around 200,000 children are helped through various programmes like 'Balwadi', 'ICDS Projects', 'Creche Centres', 'Chalaman Bahini', promotion of primary schools in villages, destitute home for the children, etc. Its work in the field of literacy has achieved national acclaim. The Parishad has been able to make thousands of people literate during the last four decades. It runs innovative adult and non-formal educational projects in different blocks of West Bengal. It primarily works through local youth groups and at present 1500 registered organizations are associated with the Parishad working in 12 districts comprising more than 4000 villages. The Parishad's general and vocational training programme is the most comprehensive one. It includes about 60 vocations covering both farming and non-farming activities. It trains annually more than 25,000 boys and girls. For the purpose of effective coordination, a four-tier organizational structure has been set up. It consists of village club at the village level, cluster organization representing between 22 and 50 villages, district level organization comprising membership of all the village organizations and lastly, the state-level coordination centre at Narendrapur.

The Parishad supports a rural library network having the membership of 150 village libraries. It also brings out regularly a monthly magazine called "Samaj Siksha" and publishes a good many books for the benefit of the illiterates and neo-literates and runs an Adult Night High School at Narendrapur. The students of this centre are mostly farm labourers, domestic servants, industrial workers, rickshaw-pullers, small traders and employees of small commercial firms. The centre is very much popular among the working class people. Besides these basic educational activities, the Parishad has also introduced a number of important innovative programmes in West Bengal. Comprehensive Environmental Improvement programmes have been initiated comprising smokeless chullah, bio-gas plants, sanitary latrine, solar light, social forestry , etc. The Sanitation Project is unique in the sense that about 200,000 latrines have been constructed without any subsidy. It has been made possible only by motivating and training different categories of people. Similarly, about 1,60,000 smokeless ovens have been installed in as many homes and some of the villages have become totally sanitary villages in terms of both sanitary latrines and smokeless oven.

Poor people in villages find it difficult to get loan from commercial banks. As a result, they are exploited by money-lenders. To remove this difficulty 300 'Thrift and Credit Groups' have been promoted in about 1000 villages benefiting about 80,000 depositors. Total deposit has exceeded Rs 10 million and beneficiaries draw loans against their own deposit and repay the loan with interest without any difficulty. What is so remarkable is that these 'Thrift and Credit groups' are self-managed.

FARMING SYSTEMS RESEARCH AND EXTENSION

This is an innovative project which tries to undertake comprehensive rural development schemes based on livelihood systems. This project encourages the use of low-cost, eco-friendly indigenous technologies, instead of high-cost technology. Such an approach makes it possible for the poor farmers to participate in the project. Besides farming activities, many other non-farming activities have been brought under this programme resulting in a sustainable and comprehensive rural development.

Joint Forest Management is another important work of the Parishad which has received wide acclaim. In view of the destruction of forests, a noble experiment of participatory forest management was introduced in our state about two decades ago. The Parishad has associated itself with some of the forest protection groups and tries to strengthen their capability to enrich their livelihood without disturbing the forest.

Because of the comprehensive nature of its developmental programme, the Parishad is now recognized as a National Resource Centre both by the Government of India as well as the State Government and it now plays a significant role in training various categories of personnel like co-ordinators of Nehru Yuva Kendras, officers of the National Service Scheme, Panchayat functionaries, youth officers, IAS Probationers, National Service volunteers, and workers of non-government organizations, etc. Through a polyvalent Adult Education Centre hundreds of those of the working class people are being trained in various trades to help them be well settled in life.

In recognition of the trail-blazing role of the Parishad and also for the successful implementation of the National Youth Programme, the Government of India has sponsored three units at Narendrapur - IDARA for NYKs, Shramik Vidyapeeth and TORC for NSS. Different departments, both at the centre and state level, are collaborating with the Parishad in implementing these wide range of development programmes.

So far I have tried to mention some of the activities of the Ramakrishna Mission centres which have taken up rural development programmes in a big way. But besides these centres, there are also a large number of private organizations which draw their inspiration from the Ramakrishna Mission, and they are also involved in various rural development projects. At the initiative of the Ramakrishna Mission, a number of units of the Bhab-Prachar Parishad have been formed in different parts of the country to consolidate and coordinate the activities of these private organizations. Roughly about 512 organizations are connected with various rural welfare activities.

REVIEW OF IMPACT

If we review the rural development programmes of the different centres of the Mission and the associated organizations the following special features of the programme will be noticed:

Thrift and credit programme of the Mission has been much appreciated by different agencies and the Government of West Bengal is now building up more or less the similar programme based on the Mission's experience.

Farming system research and extension is another innovative area which has influenced the policy-makers in the Department of Forest and Agriculture of the Government of West Bengal. In fact this research work was being coordinated by the Narendrapur branch of the Ramakrishna Mission for the entire eastern states.

Non-formal and literacy programme of the Mission is also considered one of the most important model for promoting adult education amongst the educationally backward people.

Based on the Mission's experience, now an attempt is going on to change the structure and methods of imparting vocational education through Community Polytechnics and Industrial Training Institutes.

These are some of the significant achievements of the Mission's experiment in the field of rural development. Following the basic principles of rural development as enunciated by Swami Vivekananda, the Ramakrishna Mission organized its programmes during the course of the last 100 years. In fact, the critical review of these programmes will reflect that the Mission is pursuing some sort of 'Alternative Model of Development' comprising community participation in projects for achieving self-reliance, use of local technology and know-how which are sustainable and at the same time pro-environment. It is also consistent with strengthening of Indian culture and integration of indigenous communities with the national mainstream. It has been possible to achieve these objectives as the entire programme is guided by the ideal of renunciation and service. We hope that the Mission's activities in the field of rural development will get further strength during the decades to come.