GUWAHATI, Aug 21 - The new committee of the Shree Hari Satsang Samiti, North Eastern Region, was installed here by the all-India president of the Samiti, Satya Narayan Kabra from Mumbai, on August 16.
The all-India president of the Friends of Tribals Society (FTS), Sajjan Bansal was also felicitated on his maiden visit to the region after becoming the president of FTS. The meeting on the occasion was addressed by Sajjan Bhajanka, national immediate past president, FTS, Subhash Sikaria, zonal president of the Northeast, and Arun Kumar Bajaj, national vice president of FTS.
The charge of the Shree Hari Satsang Samiti, North Eastern Region, was handed over to Om Prakash Lahoty, a businessman and social worker from Guwahati. Over 400 delegates from the northeastern region attended the meeting.
Inspired by the teachings and thoughts of Swami Vivekananda, the foundation of �Ekal Vidyalaya� (one-teacher school) was laid by starting such a school in the remote Tundi block of Dhandbad district of Jharkhand in 1986. Within no time the �Ekal Vidyalaya� became a movement which expanded to several other parts of the country. In 1989, the Ekal Movement was formally registered as �Friends of Tribals Society� with Kolkata at its head office.
The Friends of Tribals Society was extended to the northeastern region in 1998 with the establishment of 40 one-teacher schools in some remote villages of Tinsukia district. Due to its popularity and its dedication to educate tribal and rural people, the movement gained momentum in Dibrugarh, Sivasagar, Sonitpur, Cachar and Karimganj districts by 1998.
Today, the Friends of Tribals Society offers its services in 17 districts of the Northeast � Tinsukia, Dibrugarh, Sivasagar, Jorhat, Dhemaji, Golaghat, Nagaon, Sonitpur, Karbi Anglong, Kokrajhar, Udalguri, Cachar, Karimganj, Hailakandi, Dharmanagar, Imphal and Senapati.
The FTS has over 4,000 one-teacher schools in the Northeast, and these are looked after by the FTS�s Guwahati chapter. In the entire country, it serves 55,000 villages through 27 chapters.
�The objective of the Friends of Tribals Society has been not only to provide basic education to the children of tribal and rural people, but also contribute to the overall growth and prosperity of the villages. For the overall uplift of the villages, it has got five key mantras: providing basic education, cultural and spiritual awareness, providing village development education, empowerment education by teaching villagers about their rights, and providing health care education,� said an official of the FTS that has 3,780 Satsang centres in the Northeast that promote cultural and spiritual awareness.
