Peaceful Society (PS) is a Gandhian organization, was established
in 1983 while the formalities of legal registration were completed in March
1983. which began operations in Goa
in 1983. Its main aims and objectives are to-
·
Undertake various socio-economic measures in
agriculture, industry, irrigation and animal husbandry to improve the economic
condition of those living below the poverty line
·
To strive and work towards creating a more balanced
ecology
·
To organize training programs for youth for effective
involvement in development activities
·
To conduct, organize and undertake motivational and
educational programs for increasing awareness on social and health issues
The renowned Goan stalwart Late Mr. Madhav Bir was its founder president
and Kumar Kalanand Mani was made its Secretary.
Through
the twenty years of its past existence, Peaceful Society has worked in all
these fields, sometime separately but over the years with an increasing degree
of integration.
PS’s
original inspiration can be traced back through the Total Revolution of J.P.
Narayan in the late 1970’s to Gandhiji’s dream of a peaceful society, in the
personal history of two key founder members, Kumar Kalanand Mani and Bharati
Bandodkar. Kalanand Mani had a background of 9 years active full-time
involvement in the Sarvodaya Bhoodan Movement in Bihar
and then as a fully committed participant in the JP movement and the Chhatra
Sangharsha Samiti from 1974. This commitment was strengthened during the
emergency when he was one of the countless youth who was arrested and after his
release went underground to keep the spirit of freedom alive in the country.
After the emergency he was put in charge of the national secretariat of JP’s
youth wing “ Chhatra Yuva Sangharsha Vahini”. He left Bihar
in Sep. 1979 with the aim to make the whole country his experimental ground and
landed in a left oriented organisation “Kishore Bharati”. While with the
Chhatra Yuva Sangharsha Vahini, he met Ms. Bharati Bandodkar during a national
camp held in Goa in August 1978. Later as part
of social commitment towards casteless society, he married Bharati in January
1980.
Impressed
by the still pristine environment, both natural and social, and with the
inspiration from senior Sarvodaya leaders, he decided to make Goa
his new home and a base of his operation and experiment (Karmasthal). Initially
he worked as a full-time activist for the Goa Sarvodaya Mandal. During this
time, he tried to enter fully into the culture and life of Goa, looking to see
how the principles of Gandhi’s vision of a society based on ‘mutual
understanding, cooperation and collective efforts ’ could be realized in Goa.
Soon
he had a cadre of like-minded youth supported by a group of older citizens to
form a development group, which would present “the Gandhian model of ideal life
and environment before the people” of Goa. The
goal was “the improvement of the living conditions of the rural people and
development of agriculture and agro based allied industries”. The principal
strategy was to awaken the social spirit by making the people aware of their
rights and duties, leading to the removal of “poverty, inequality,
exploitation, injustice, illiteracy, and blind-faith, ecological and economical
imbalance”.
The
Gandhian principles of personal commitment and involvement in social
development work, it was planned that the board members would take an active
interest as well as actual involvement in grass root work with specific
responsibility for different areas. For this reason the board members were from
different areas and talukas in Goa and the
first programs were planned in each of 5 areas from where the board members
hailed.
Initially the task was to convince
the members, all original inhabitants of Goa
about the need for a poverty eradication program. All of them were convinced
that Goa was not like the rest of India, that people were by and large well
off, economically and socially, and that what was needed was the filling-in of
gaps in the social fabric, by running an education program in some remote areas
or improving street light, supporting sport activities and the like. To
convince them that this was not the case, a detailed household survey was done
in Bandora, in Ponda taluka, the first ‘headquarters’ of PS. Shortly afterwards, similar surveys were
carried out in 5 more villages. The results of the survey clearly showed the
need for broad based economic development program in favour of rural poor. And
in 1984, Peaceful Society started its first organized activities in two different
sectors that would determine the direction of its future in Goa
and in the entire country.
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Reg.
No. 21/GOA/84
Regd. Office: KUNDAI 403 115 Goa,
INDIA FCRA Reg. No.
271830005
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