Arpan logo   "A bone to the dog is not charity.
Charity is the bone shared with the
dog, when you are just as hungry as
the dog."
-Jack London
   
    Parivaar Education Society
Cause: Education and total rehabilitation of young destitute children.

Profile: Parivaar was started by an IIT Kharagpur and IIM Calcutta alumnus
Shri Vinayak Lohani, who, inspired by spiritual and humanistic ideals of Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda, decided to dedicate his life for
'Sarvabhuta Seva' (service of all especially the distressed), immediately after passing out of IIM in 2003. Starting with just 3 children in a small rented
building with almost no financial resources, there are currently 352 children
who have found a new Home, Family and Future at Parivaar.

  Parivaar Ashram at Bakhrahat, about 30 Km from Kolkata city is spread over 8 acres (about 320,000 sq. ft) of land.

Parivaar Ashram is a Residential Institution for Education and Overall Development of erstwhile destitute children
from categories like orphans, girls vulnerable to exploitation and victimization, street children, abandoned children,
children from highly impoverished tribal areas, and other such highly vulnerable children. Parivaar Ashram is essentially
a community of children and Resident Seva-vratis (volunteers) whose only aim is to love and serve the children as their
younger brothers and sisters. Starting from scratch (with just 3 resident children) in 2003 and thereafter developed
brick by brick, Parivaar Ashram is being continuously developed and molded into a unique institution transforming the
lives of each of its resident members (children as well as adults). At the Parivaar Ashram campus is also located
Parivaar’s own Formal School ‘Amar Bharat Vidyapeeth’, a quality academic institution, in which the resident children
of Parivaar study.
   
  Children are admitted at a young age of 4 to 10 into Parivaar Ashram. Each resident child once admitted into Parivaar
will be under the care and custody of Parivaar till higher education (graduation / post-graduation) and subsequent job placement
and settlement into future phase of life. Parivaar is and shall be behind each child and pave his/her way into any future career
which he/she is aspiring for and showing promise of making to, whether it is a stream graduation in humanities, commerce or
sciences, or a professional degree education in engineering/medicine. For example, children showing aptitude for meritorious
professional lines like engineering or medicine or any other such lines shall be trained and fully supported (just as parents
do for their on children) for completion of that higher education and subsequent placement. Their eldest group of children
is already in Class 8 and despite the fact that they were late-starters in academic path (trained and initiated straight into
Class 4 in 2004) they are outperforming children from educated households in their respective schools, and securing top-bracket
ranks.
   
  In the next 2 years, Parivaar is being developed to accommodate 1000 such resident children while ensuring
the same high quality. A separate All-Girls Residential Institution is on the way of being developed which
will be gradually expanded to accommodate 500 resident girls. Construction for the same is going on.
Residential Institutions shall also be started in some of the far-off tribal areas where Parivaar is working.
   
 

Food Stock Distribution Scheme
Parivaar Ashram being the hub of training of Seva-vratis, is also the base for many other projects serving the rural areas as
well as far-off tribal areas in various districts. 400 such families from highly impoverished tribal areas are enrolled in
Parivaar's regular Food stock scheme whereby 9 tons of food stock are ferried and distributed by Parivaar Seva-vratis through
most inaccessible terrains in these areas every month. 75 children from these tribal areas have also been admitted at
Parivaar Ashram Residential Institution. Click here for details on the food stock distribution program.

   
 

A New Dimension
Parivaar has also developed a wide field-base in various highly impoverished tribal areas in the surrounding region.
That these people have been languishing for thousands of years in darkness and continue to be in the same
condition has been the foremost thought that struck Parivaar. The children malnourished, women half-clad,
old-aged persons like living corpses. They live in conditions that can hardly be called human. Generation after
generation, these people have been living in the same conditions with no better conditions bequeathed to their posterity.
For more details on this new dimension of Parivaar, Click here.

Parivaar's work has attracted an increasing number of supporters from varied walks of life, and at the same time
has been able to build a cadre of highly dedicated youth Seva-vratis who are initiated into ideals of service
and trained at Parivaar Ashram.

   
 

Parivaar: Building of a Unique family
December '03 : Admission of 3 children at rented building at Bonogram near Kolkata.
June 30th '04: 59 children
Dec 29th '04: Purchase of land at Barkalikapur, Bakhrahat in 24 Parganas (South)
Dec 31st '05: 145 children.
June 30th '06: 200 children.
May 15th '07: 250 children.
Jun 15th '08 : 332 children.

   
 

The Road Ahead
Parivaar wants to continuously develop its cadre of dedicated Seva-vratis who can take vow of service and work
in various neglected parts of India for our unserved brethren and bring light to their lives. Thus in the years
to come similar full-fledged Seva-Ashrams shall be started in other places first in West Bengal and then in the
rest of India.

   
 

Parivaar’s Support Base
Supporters all over the world have been influenced and inspired by Parivaar’s work. A large number of working
professionals including IIT and IIM alumni (more than 500 of them) the world over support Parivaar.

For more details about Parivaar Education Society and its projects, please Click here.

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