Page 50 - EW July 2022

Rural development

missionaries

stablished in 2002, Nanritam
(‘truth’) is a Purulia (West
EBengal)-based NGO promoted
by RANJANA SENGUPTA, founder-
secretary, and PROF. P.K. GIRI, presi-
dent of Nanritam Society, together
with five like-minded professionals
— Dr. Shyamal K. Datta, Dr. Osman
Ghani, Milika Datta, Ranjit Mukher-
ji, and Dr. Bharati Bakshi with Prof.
Kaushik Basu, former World Bank
chief economist, as mentor. Nanri-
tam provides health, education and
livelihood training services to the
public, and manages four projects Ranjana Sengupta with Filix students. Inset: Prof. P.K. Giri
in Purulia (267 km from Kolkata)
— Filix School of Education, UDB- With the NGO’s K-10 English- time employees supported by 140
HAAS centre for challenged children, medium school having been brought field workers from local communities
Lokeswarananda Eye Foundation, on stream smoothly, last November working in the backward districts of
and Nanritam Krishi Kendra for Nanritam initiated an Education for Purulia, Bankura, Bardhaman and
educating farmers. All (EFA) outreach programme to Paschim Medinipur in West Bengal.
The NGO’s flagship Filix School of improve teaching-learning standards The society’s annual budget is heav-
Education (FSE) is a CBSE-affiliated in rural West Bengal. The EFA cam- ily subsidised by corporate and indi-
English-medium K-10 school sited paign is being led by Sarada Prasad vidual donations raised by trustees
in Para village with an enrolment of Namhata, former vice president of and well-wishers.
450 children mentored by 20 teach- Huntsman Corporation and global Future plans. “Nanritam’s initiatives
ers. R&D director, Dow Chemical Com- in one of the country’s most socio-
Newspeg. Nanritam is celebrating its pany. Currently, 500 government economically backward districts
tenth anniversary this year. and private school teachers in ten is a promising experiment in rural
History. Promoted in 2014, FSE has districts statewide are receiving in- development. If we are successful in
quickly earned an excellent repu- service teacher training to improve sustaining our model, it offers the
tation for providing high-quality the learning outcomes of 20,000 possibility of emulation and repli-
affordable schooling (tuition fee: primary school children. cation countrywide,” says Ranjana
Rs.600-1,600 per month) in the Other initiatives. Established in Sengupta, founder-secretary of the
backward Purulia district. The 2008, the society’s modest eye care Nanritam Society.
school’s first batch of students will clinic in Purulia district’s Baran- Baishali Mukherjee (Kolkata)
write the class X board exam in danga, Para village, has grown into
2023. “FSE provides high-quality a 100-bed super specialty free-of- Indefatigable
English-medium education to rural charge hospital, supported by the
children at affordable fees. I am state government, which treats
pleased to report that over the past 200,000 patients per year. Likewise, edupreneur
seven years, FSE has developed into Nanritam Krishi Kendra (estb.2010)
a progressive institution offering provides on-site education to 2,000 ANKAJ SHARMA is president
joyous learning and pedagogies to farmers in three districts to adopt of the Pune-based Lexicon
educationally neglected rural chil- best farming practices and improve PGroup (estd.2006) whose
dren,” says Prof. P.K. Giri, president yields. Moreover, Nanritam also runs education division has promoted
of Nanritam and former head of the the UDBHAAS centre for challenged three CBSE-affiliated primary-sec-
statistics department, Ramakrishna children. ondary schools, eight preschools and
Mission Residential College, Naren- Over the past two decades, Nanri- a therapy centre for special children
drapur, Kolkata. tam has recruited a team of 100 full- with an aggregate enrolment of

JULY 2022 EDUCATIONWORLD 49