[Reader-list] Ekal Vidyalaya - A people's movement

[Sanjay Kak]

Apropos the "noble mission" of organisations such as Ekal Vidyalaya,
here's an interesting quote from a 2002 article by A K Sen:
http://www.alliancesouthasia.org/index.cfm?sectionID=24&objectID=268

     "When confronted with the Sangh antecedents of Sewa Bharati,
Prakash quickly retracted from his earlier position to say, "I am
aware of the RSS-VHP affiliations of some organisations we fund." He
then went on dismiss such links as a non-issue. But Sewa Bharati isn't
the only RSS-linked recipient of the IDRF's munificence.For instance,
the IDRF lists a sister organisation called the Ekal Vidyalaya.
Incidentally, the Ekal Vidyalaya was started by the VHP under the
aegis of the Bharat Kalyan Pratishthan (BKP), and has now been taken
over by the Sri Vivekananda Rural Development Society (SVRDS). The
IDRF funds both the BKP and the SVRDS."

Best

Sanjay Kak

On Mon, Apr 19, 2010 at 2:41 PM, Kshmendra Kaul <kshmendra2005 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> Dear Pawan
>
> I did not understand your question.
>
> Does it, what?
>
> Does what, what?
>
> K
>
> --- On Mon, 4/19/10, Pawan Durani <pawan.durani at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> From: Pawan Durani <pawan.durani at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Ekal Vidyalaya - A people's movement
> To: "Kshmendra Kaul" <kshmendra2005 at yahoo.com>
> Cc: "reader-list" <reader-list at sarai.net>
> Date: Monday, April 19, 2010, 2:30 PM
>
>
> Does it ? Pls share ...
>
>
> On Mon, Apr 19, 2010 at 2:28 PM, Kshmendra Kaul <kshmendra2005 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Dear Pawan
>
> Howsoever sincere, well thought out and brilliant the effort might be, if it is rooted in stressing upon the precepts of or inspiration from just one religion then it is doomed to not gaining universal acceptance but instead creating suspicions and resentment.
>
> Education should have nothing to do with religion, whicever religion it might be.
>
> Kshmendra
>
> --- On Mon, 4/19/10, Pawan Durani <pawan.durani at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> From: Pawan Durani <pawan.durani at gmail.com>
> Subject: [Reader-list] Ekal Vidyalaya - A people's movement
> To: "reader-list" <reader-list at sarai.net>
> Date: Monday, April 19, 2010, 2:16 PM
>
>
>
>
>
> Came across this noble mission ; the work seems amazing . More and
> more concepts like these are needed to help the tribals and the rural
> people where education hasn't reached yet.
>
> *****************************************************************************************************************************************************
> http://ekalindia.org/
>
> Vision
>
> To banish illiteracy from the face of tribal India by providing free,
> non-formal education through a People-Movement.
>
>
> Mission
>
> Literate India
> While it is making giant advances in software, space, and nuclear
> power, India is paradoxically still struggling with questions of basic
> literacy for a large segment of its population. Upon independence,
> India's literacy rate was a staggering 11 percent. Since then, we have
> made tremendous advances in educating our people. Still, more than six
> decades after independence, 65.4% India is still illiterate. Even
> worse off is the position of tribal India, which has a literacy rate
> below 30 percent.