Over 50,000 volunteers spreading education in rural India via single-teacher schools will gather in Dhanbad to discuss their roadmap from March 1 to 3 during their national conclave, Parinaam Kumbh.
The event will mark 25 years of Ekal Vidyalaya or solo schools, which started from Ratanpur village, Tundi block, in Dhanbad, and then spread elsewhere.
Ekal Vidyalaya, said to be the country's largest non-governmental, non-profit education initiative, with teaches reaching out to remote tribal-dominated areas, also has a strong rightwing influence.
Rightwing leaders of the RSS and VHU such as Mohan Bhagwat, Ashok Singhal and Sadhvi Rithambara will be part of the Dhanbad conclave at Golf Ground. Known for their provocative statements, the trio will be part of the 50,000 delegates from the state, 2,500 from elsewhere in India and some 60 from abroad, including the US, Canada, Australia and Hong Kong.
But, top office bearers of the solo school movement denied charges of "Hindu-ising tribals" or disturbing the social fabric.
Talking to the media at the camp office of the conclave's organising committee, global co-coordinator of Ekal Vidyalaya (Foundation of USA) Ramesh P. Shah said: "Nothing is a secret. We allow students to study in Urdu medium too. The only two things compulsory are Saraswati Vandana and the National Anthem."
"At Ekal Vidyalaya, we have a five-point agenda. They are bal shiksha, swasth siksha, gram vikas siksha, jagran siksha and sanskar siksha (children's education, health education, village development, awareness about legal issues and moral education)," Shah, an US-based mechanical engineer of Indian origin, said.
Shah added he had played a key role in contacting other NRIs from Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Middle East to generate funds.
"Apart from 53,164 solo schools in India, some 2,100 more are operating in neighbouring Nepal. Two persons of Afghanistan contacted us last year to launch Ekal Vidyalaya there," Shah said.
National president of Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation Bajrang Bagra said that apart from free of cost education for children between six and 14 years of age, hygiene and sanitation activities, organic manure promotion, awareness and cultural programmes were among their ambit of work.
Processions of 30,000 people from Barwaddah airstrip, 7,500 from Koylanagar and 3,000 from railway stadium will be taken out on Day One. Ekal Vidyalaya central organisational president Shyamji Gupta will make his address on their vision for next 25 years.
