Introduction

Morning walk inside the beautiful campus of a very renowned institute of India was a part of my daily routine. This campus brims with natural beauty whole day, but the mornings are particularly tranquil. During my usual stroll on one such morning, I found that the campus was littered with thousands of pet water-bottles and plastic wrappers of eatables. A marathon was held the previous day and the organizers had distributed water and eatables to the participants. On that day, that beautiful campus looked extremely dirty and seemed to question our sensitivity to the environment. On another occasion, on a busy road in a metro city, I saw people honking mindlessly and driving insanely. I was contemplating where has happiness disappeared in this hustle and bustle? Most of us can relate to similar incidents where we find ourselves confronted with our present beliefs, attitude, and purpose of life. 

In a more general sense, we have forgotten our fundamental values and have become culturally deprived; our society has fallen prey to evils such as suicides, addiction, abuse, and depression. We have also not been successful in eliminating problems like corruption and poverty.  It has created dissatisfaction in society.  Existing laws, welfare policies, and counseling bodies have been able to address these problems only to a certain extent.

We believe that this problem needs to be addressed through a fundamental approach i.e. through education. It is ironic that while the literacy rate in India has been on the rise, such problems have either increased or remained the same. This speaks volumes about the lacuna of the education system in India. After independence, India required a huge economic push. Therefore, an education system was implemented to produce professionals who can drive industries. As a result, India emerged as the fastest growing economy in the world. However, in this process, we overlooked an essential component of education – which is man making! Unfortunately, our youth was coaxed into a system that turned them into robots programmed with a lot of information but devoid of virtues like love, compassion, honesty, self-confidence, faith in God, patriotism, etc.  The problems of poverty, corruption, suicides, depression, dissatisfaction are the repercussions of this 'information loaded and virtue deprived' education system. 

Seers and thinkers have stressed the importance of man-making education for creating a peaceful society. For example, according to Swami Vivekananda, “We want that education by which character is formed, the strength of mind is increased, the intellect is expanded, and by which one can stand on one's own feet. The ideal of all education, all training, should be this man-making. But, instead of that, we are always trying to polish up the outside. What use in polishing up the outside when there is no inside? The end and aim of all training is to make the man grow.”

It is in this context that ‘Vivekananda Swadhyay Mandal’ (VSM) was envisioned by Dr. Shivendra Kumar Kashyap in the year 1999. Dr. Kashyap is currently serving as the Dean, College of Agriculture, and Professor of Agricultural Extension and Communication in India at G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - the first agricultural university of the country. Vivekanand Swadhyay Mandal, fondly known  as VSM by its members, has now grown into a huge group of academicians, student volunteers from Pantnagar University, and industry professionals - alumni working in diverse fields at important positions across the globe. The focus of its activities is to generate core values of social justice, tolerance, and universal acceptance, gender equality, pragmatic outlook and quest for excellence in the youth of the country through scientifically designed interventions at the mass level. The following section describes the activities of VSM.

VSM Activities

The activities of VSM can be broadly classified into the following four categories: Cultural Education, Spirituality, Excellence and Social Service.  These categories are described below.

   Cultural Education

1. Visits: Every year the VSM team organizes trips to the destinations which are the embodiments of selfless service and Indian culture. For example, visits to places such as Deen Dayal Research Institute at Chitrakoot, Shanti Kunj at Haridwar, Ram Krishna Math at Almora have been organized. The purpose is to inspire youth to be innovative and selfless.

2. Celebration of festivals: VSM team celebrates festivals (like Holi, Deepawali, Shivaratri, Basant Panchami, Hindi Nav Varsh etc.) where students discuss the essence and the relevance of the festival.   

   Spirituality

1. Yoga and meditation: Swami Ji laid huge stress on developing physical- and mental-strength. In line with this, yoga is organized every day. It includes chanting, asanas, pranayamas and meditation.

2.  Study-circles:  Study-circles are organized every month. The topics span across Indian culture, scriptures and current-affairs. In this process of mutual churning, students gain clarity from each other's thoughts and experiences.

3. Prayer Sessions: Prayer Sessions are organized every Sunday to pray before Maa Kali, Maa Saraswati, Shri Ramakrishna, Maa Sharda, and Swami Vivekanand. Singing, chanting and inspirational discourse are the key components of prayer session.

   Excellence

1.Personality Development Workshops: VSM organizes personality development workshops for students and for working professionals. Games, group discussions, and motivational videos are used as tools to convey the message. Topics such as personal excellence, self-confidence, and public-speaking are taken up.

2. One-minute speech competition: With the motive to test one's progress and overcome one's fear of public speaking, a minute speech competition is organized once every month. The winners of each month not only get to share the stage, but also face the challenge of retaining their title the next month.

   Social Service

1. Book Stall: To provide motivational and spiritual literature to University students and the general public, a bookstall is put up in the 'All India Farmers' Fair' organized biannually in the university campus. The stall is managed by the team members from arranging books in the stall to handling transactions where about 10,000 to 15,000 books are sold in every fair.

2. Sunday Classes: Every Sunday, VSM members devote two hours to teach underprivileged children. These children belong to the families of mess workers, laborers, house-keeping staff. Apart from doubt clearing sessions, they are also taught English language and basics of computer science - the curriculum of which is designed by VSM members.

Apart from the above activities, the following are the annual activities:

1. Ek sham shaheedon ke naam: It is a multimedia show dedicated to the martyrs of India. It reminds the students of the supreme sacrifices of our heroes towards our country and humanity at large.

2. Sankalp Meet: In this the alumni of VSM meet . In this meeting, VSM fraternity mutually share their   experiences, achievements, and learnings, sets up new targets and analyzes the outcomes of past activities.

3. YUVA: It is the biggest event of VSM that spans between 12th January (birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda) and 23rd January (birth anniversary of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. YUVA is a series of events like National Level Debate Competition, National Youth Symposium, Zonal Level Oratory and Quiz competitions for school students, Cultural Night, Leadership Hunt Contest, and Youth Rally.

Outcomes

The impact of VSM is so intense that hundreds of its youths have been  dedicating themselves for the upliftment of masses at the lowest stratum. The following are some examples of activities of these  VSM youths:

1. Deeksha Satyawali an engineer dwelling from a well-to-do family of a city is working for the benefit of tribal women in interiors of Tonk district of Rajasthan state for the last three years. She is residing in a secluded village where women still bathe in open. Since then, she has substantially transformed the attitude of tribal population and generated a pragmatic outlook in them through her dedication and effort.

2. Yogesh Bhatt is working in tribal areas of Gujarat state since 2014. He has generated deep proximity with the tribal population and has transformed the lives of hundreds of tribal through entrepreneurship development programmes.

3. Pawan Bisht, an Electronics and Communication engineer,  did his M.A. in Rural Development from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Tulijapur. He initiated a campaign, ‘Skip a Meal’ to feed the underprivileged children of his nearby campus and plans to implement the program in the entire country. He is currently serving in Rajasthan state working for rural development projects.

VSM has made significant impact in the context of youth empowerment in India. It aligned the principles and theories of social science to design modules for sustainable human transformation and worked extensively on the following fronts:

● Generating capable youth leaders with a strong value system who are willing to dedicate their lives for the social and human cause. VSM makes effort through its multifarious activities and initiatives to generate youth leaders with a holistic personality who pursue the quest of excellence in life and have a broader humanitarian goal of life. Gupta, Adhikari, Naula and Goswamy (2016) reported that the youths of VSM were found to be skilled with dogged willpower, enthusiasm, energy, social sensitivity, and dedication.

● Inculcating employability and soft skills within university students through well developed and scientifically designed interventions and supporting the current education system. VSM has organized more than 500 workshops on multiple aspects of personality management and public speaking for university students through a proper need assessment mechanism. It has also organized more than 400 study circles and discussion forums on topics ranging from history, sociology, politics, economics, religion, culture, art, ethics, spirituality, management, psychology. These initiatives by VSM have positively impacted in building the skill set of university students. Pathak A. (2012) in his paper Understanding Education: The Vivekanand Swadhyay Mandal Way (pp 41) wrote that Vivekanand Swadhyay Mandal is specifically catering to fulfilling missing links of the education system through character building, life skill training, nurturing mental strength and developing  orientation towards selfless service. It was strongly observed that the VSM model of youth empowerment is supposed to be adopted in every university and institution for the overall growth of upcoming generations and integrated development of individuals and society.

● Effectively imparting ethics and self-induced discipline so that these tenets stand up as strong pillars of the university. VSM, by encouraging its members to lead addiction free life, has saved hundreds of students from falling prey to this evil. As a result, G.B. Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, Pantnagar has emerged as a responsible university.

●  Amalgamating youth intellect and youth vision, to produce a series of publications. A continuous effort has been made by VSM to encourage youth to pen their thoughts on various aspects of leadership development, life skills, culture and humanitarian values.

Conclusion

Since 1999, Vivekanand Swadhyay Mandal has been working incessantly towards man making.  The relentless and dedicated efforts of its members are now bearing fruits. Majority of the youth nurtured in this process are living with Indian value systems, are actively contributing to the society in all possible ways and are inspiring their network towards selfless and honest life. Many of its members have taken to social service as a full-time career – which is a biggest testimony to this process. Not only in social life, VSM members are excelling in their professional lives also. VSM fraternity is holding important positions across the globe and silently working for national interests. VSM model is scalable and replicable. India needs more such institutions to generate a self-confident and sensitive youth – a youth that Swami Vivekananda often dreamt of.  

   

References

Gupta, Shweta, Adhikari, Babita, Naula, Seema & Goswamy, Pragya. (2016). Vivekanand Swadhayay Mandal: Living Practical Vivekananda. Saving Humanity, Channelizing Potential of Indian Youth for Nation Building, 9-13, 978-81-923019-0-7.

Pathak, Awadhesh (2012). Understanding Education: The Vivekanand Swadhyay Mandal Way. Saving Humanity: Swami Vivekananda Perspective, 41-47, ISBN No. : 978-81-923019-0-7.

Picture credits: Jack Sem via Flickr

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