Besides serving countless people in its hospital, the Ramakrishna Sarada Mission Matri Bhavan offers educational opportunities and women’s empowerment programmes, Swami Goutamanandaji Maharaj, the president of Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission, said at Matri Bhavan’s platinum jubilee celebrations on Monday.

The legacy of Matri Bhavan is both “deeply inspiring and humbling”, he said.

Pravrajika Atandraprana Mataji, the general secretary of Sri Sarada Math and Ramakrishna Sarada Mission, which operates Matri Bhavan, spoke about how the Mission has run the hospital since 1961.

“Matri Bhavan is more than a hospital. It is a sanctuary of service to man. Alongside medical care, it offers educational opportunities, women’s empowerment programmes, skill development training and timely relief during natural calamities,” Swami Goutamanandaji Maharaj said in his benedictory address at the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Golpark.

Matri Bhavan began humbly in 1950, when the Ramakrishna Mission established a small medical hospital in Calcutta with just 10 beds. In 1961, the management of this was entrusted to the Ramakrishna Sarada Mission (the women’s part of the Ramakrishna Order). Since then, the Matri Bhavan institution has grown manifold.

Matri Bhavan is now a 100-bed superspeciality hospital. The Matri Bhavan website mentions that the charitable hospital has 80 beds for obstetrics and gynaecology, general medicine, general surgery and paediatrics. There are 20 beds for neonates.

In her address, Pravrajika Atandraprana Mataji spoke about the birth and evolution of Matri Bhavan.

“When Swamiji travelled all over the country as a Parivrajak (itinerant monk), he came face to face with the intense suffering of women and the masses. A deep concern about the condition of women gripped him. He reflected deeply on their hardships and how they might be uplifted,” she said.

Swami Dayananda Maharaj, a kind monk, established Shishumangal in 1932 in Bakulbagan, she said. “It began as a maternity clinic and is now Seva Pratishthan hospital. Matri Bhavan hospital came into being as a direct offshoot of Ramakrishna Mission Seva Pratishthan in 1950,” she said.

The founding of Sarada Math marked a significant milestone. For the first 5 years, it was directly guided by Belur Math. It was treated as a branch centre. On August 26, 1959, Sri Sarada Math became an independent institution.

“Acting under the advice of senior trustees of Belur Math, Sri Sarada Math established Ramakrishna Sarada Mission on May 13, 1960. Within a few years, Sri Sarada Math emerged as a living expression of women’s strength and spiritual power. Now, Sri Sarada Math and Ramakrishna Sarada Mission work among needy women and children all over the country and abroad and have emerged as a symbol of women’s empowerment that Swamiji foresaw,” Pravrajika Atandraprana Mataji added.

A sarod recital by Amaan Ali Bangash followed.