“We believe that through character building, ordinary people can reach extra-ordinary heights”: Interview with Shridhar Sagar

Shridhar Sagar (or Shridhar anna as he is lovingly called), is the director of Hindu Seva Pratishthana. After his education, he worked as a Manager in a Bank for 2 years before he decided to dedicate his life for social service. He joined the Rashtriya Seva Bharati, a Social Service Organisation, as a coordinator and helped organize community activities and train volunteers. He worked in many service organisations in different capacities throughout Karnataka. In the year 1989, he joined Hindu Seva Pratishthana and started working as a coordinator. Since then he has been very active and has overseen the birth and the growth of many projects. He became the Managing Trustee and the Director of Hindu Seva Pratishthana in 1997. In this interview Shridhar Sagar talks of the concept of Seva, about the different projects of HSP and how HSP is helping people internalize the value of Seva. Excerpts from the interview.

What is the main objective of Hindu Seva Pratishthana?

HSP’s main objective has been to bring a positive change in the society through community development. We believe in character building and in making men and women who can contribute to the community. We believe that through character building, ordinary people can reach extra-ordinary heights. Through our various programs, we have been able to involve a large number of young people into community development.

What is the philosophy of Hindu Seva Pratishthana?

Hindu Seva Pratishthana believes in ‘Seva Dharma’. Seva, we believe, is one’s Dharma (one’s duty). It should not be done for name or fame or for any other returns. It has to be selfless. But more importantly Seva should restore the dignity and self-respect of its beneficiary. The compassion that accompanies our ‘Seva’ should be capable of transforming a person from a receiver of ‘Seva’ to a giver of ‘Seva’. It is also important that through our Seva we create a strong and a harmonious society.

What do you think of today’s youth? Are they socially responsible? Are they receptive to the ideas of Seva?

There is currently a very strong notion that today’s youth are careless or are not responsible. My experience with young people helps me refute this. Today’s youth are very much receptive to the ideas of Seva and community development. For example look at the Sevavrathi program of the Pratishthana. Every year we invite young people who have passed a minimum of tenth standard to come forward as volunteers. These people have to stay away from their homes in different service project locations sacrificing many of their material comforts for a period of three years. HSP has been successful in attracting and training as many as 4123 Sevavrathis in the past 31 years. Out of which notably 3681 are women. These volunteers have worked on rendering yeomen service in service projects in various states including Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.  This Sevavrathi program is an example of what today’s youth are capable of achieving.

Give us a brief introduction to the projects run by the HSP.

Hindu Seva Pratisthana has been serving the needy, the under-privileged and the marginalized people, irrespective of their class, caste, creed and religion. It is trying to instill the values of seva in the society and helping thousands of people internalize Seva as part of their daily lives. Currently, HSP is mainly focusing on ten projects.

• Aruna Chetana: Aruna Chetana is a school for differently-abled and special needs children.  This year, Aruna Chetana completes 24 years of its existence. The school aims to cater to the physical, psychological, educational and health needs of the children. Aruna Chetana has received an award from Women and Child Welfare Department, Govt of Karnataka, for being the best school for special needs children.

• Nele: It is a project that has a number of shelter homes for street children, rag pickers and destitute children. We started this project in the year 2000 with one center and 15 children. Today, Nele has 283 children in 10 centers in Bengaluru, Shimoga, Mysore, Tumkur and Bagalkote.

• Prasanna Counseling Center: We have been running a counseling center where hundreds of people avail psychiatric counseling free of cost every month. Reputed psychiatrists, doctors and specialists from centers such as the NIMHANS and Victoria Hospitals volunteer here every week. Trainings are also conducted for volunteers who wish to become counselors themselves.

• Child Guidance Center: We also conduct free counseling for children who require psychiatric counseling.

• Seva Kirana: Under this project, we have a number of non-formal schools for the children of slum dwellers across Bangalore. The project apart from providing education to these children also focuses on the holistic development of these children through cultural activities and sports.

• Vidya Nidhi: Through this project we offer scholarships to poor students to enable them complete their education.

• Samagra Shishu Shikshana: This project works towards providing comprehensive education to the children, mostly at the primary levels of schooling. The aim of this project is to help and guide the children in all their educational needs. Over a thousand children are being benefited through this project.

• Youth for Seva: It is a platform that engages the youth mostly college students and young professionals into different community development activities. Thousands of young people have been connected to different service projects through this initiative.

• Nele Swavalambana: Through this project, tailoring and other employment oriented training is provided to women and youth from the economically weaker sections of the society so that they can become self-reliant.

• Yoga Bharati: HSP has trained more than a thousand people all over Karnataka in the ancient practice of Yoga through special yoga camps and workshops based on the traditional Patanjali School of yoga.

Any new projects of particular focus that are coming up?

HSP believes in investing in change-makers rather than in the change itself. We believe in creating dedicated volunteers and social entrepreneurs who can work on different existing projects and also start new projects of their own. Training of volunteers is also essential for the continuity, improvement and the growth of the social endeavor. We are planning a center at Yelhanka in North Bengaluru that has the infrastructure for training volunteers and social workers on a continuous basis. The permanent facility with all the modern amenities dedicated solely for volunteer training will help run the training programs on the sustained basis and with improvised methods. The proposed center shall be able to run training programs for over three hundred people and cater to 12 different types of trainings at a time, both occasional and continually run programs.

Our focus will be on inspiring new people to volunteer and on creating dedicated social workers.

Ravi (Narendra Nele) of 6th std. has won 1st prize in 100 meters running race, Zonal level.

G.Krishna of 7th std. has won the 1st prize in 100 and 600 meters running race in Zonal level and 1st price in 100 meter running race, Taluk level.

G. Sharan of 7th std. has won the 1st prize in 200 and 400 meters and also he has won 2nd prize in ko ko, and throw ball, Zonal level.

L. Arun Kumar of 7th std. has won the 3rd prize in drawing competition, inter school level.

Patel Gullappa School had organized a drawing competition and Nele kids have grabbed all the prizes.  Chandru of 6th std. has grabbed the 1st price, Manidasa of 6th second prize, and Ranjith of 5th std. has grabbed the 3rd prize.

Nele kids have won the 1st prize in Taluk level kabadi competition.
Lakshminarayana of Namma Mane has won the 2nd prize in a drawing competition which was organized by Vikasa School.

Man is always coupled with society and nature.  Either of them is incomplete without each other.  Like the same our festivals builds up bond between human and nature or the society.  These festivals show the significance of the bonding.  The formalities, the rituals are so cleverly designed that unknowingly we will be following precious ways of life.  Just think if we start understanding the real concept behind the festivals it would be still more pleasure to celebrate.

Every festival is associated with a theme and most of the times its victory of good over bad.  This creates an impression, introduces a new person who is with full of good characters.  This in-turn motivates towards good thoughts and actions and helps in self realization.  Few of the festivals are associated with fasting.  This enables to know the value of food and control over the organs.  There is no single festival you celebrate alone so another motive is to bring people together, which strengthens the relations.  In this busy life people have very little time to sit and have an interaction with their family and friends.  So this is an occasion which enables us to have the pleasure of having our people around us.

Festivals are not just doing some pooja and have some good food; it’s a medium which helps us to cultivate good habits and show us the precious values of life.

Every festival has got its own significance like sankranti, we share yellu-bella with our friends and relatives which builds up bondage, the ganesha festival which again bring people together, dasara is significant for victory of good over bad, nagarapanchami and rakshabandhan – festival of brother and sister.  So every festival has a theme.  Always try to give us the best and it’s up to us to understand and accept.  

 Our culture is rich and diverse and as a result unique in its very own way. Our manners, way of communicating with one another, etc are one of the important components of our culture. Even though we have accepted modern means of living, improved our lifestyle, our values and beliefs still remain unchanged. A person can change his way of clothing, way of eating and living but the rich values in a person always remains unchanged because they are deeply rooted within our hearts, mind, body and soul which we receive from our culture.

It was on September 30^th, we were shifting some essential material to a camp at Yalahanka.  On the way, just a km from the camp we found a lady around 55-year-old sitting on the divider and we were told that she was there since morning.  Then we unloaded the material in the camp and immediately went to check on her.  By the time we reached the place she was surrounded by 2 police men and some 5-6 people.  On enquiry we came to know that she was a Gujrati and she knew only Gujrati.  She was in very bad condition.  She was drenched in rain, her clothes were wet and she was shivering horribly.  Then we convinced to take her to the camp.  She was ready but wanted to be accompanied by woman only.  Somebody tried giving her Rs. 500 she just rejected it.  Then we called up our volunteer who knew Gujrati.  They spoke to her and found that she was from Binar.  She was depressed and had no interest in life.  She had no desire to live and she said she has a son who is well settled in life.

Then she was brought to the camp.  She had bath and some food.  For our surprise, the following day she denied to have food, the reason being she was just not ready to take anything for free.  She said she wants to justify.  Then she was given some cleaning job, she use to finish her job only then she use to eat. 

We finally were able to trace her home.  We spoke to her family and they were so happy to hear about her.   They even had registered an FIR.  Her son left immediately and it took 2 days for him to reach Bangalore.  The reunion was so emotional every volunteer’s eyes were wet.  While leaving, the lady gave Rs.100 as a token of appreciation for the services we are doing. 

The things to be noticed here are, she was in pathetic condition, unknown place, everyone were strangers despite when we called her to the camp she insisted a woman to accompany her. Another thing is she wanted to earn her food, fine she did the least work but the attitude which mattered.  This is what our culture is!!  This is what we are taught.