The Mata Amritanandamayi Math (MAM) on Tuesday announced a massive relief and rehabilitation project worth `50 crore in flood-ravaged Uttarakhand and also a programme to adopt 101 villages across the country.
Both the projects would be officially launched during Amritavarsham60 – the 60th birthday celebrations of Mata Amritanandamayi Devi – to be held at Amma’s ashram complex in Vallikkavu in Kerala on September 26 and 27. Artistes from across the world are scheduled to perform during the celebrations, which would be filmed by acclaimed director Shekhar Kapur.
A two-day summit of scientists, social leaders, academicians, entrepreneurs and administrators, ‘Our World, Our Villages: What Can We Offer’, aimed at uplifting India’s village communities would be organised at that time. The summit, to be inaugurated by former President Dr A P J Abdul Kalam, would see the participation of Dr M S Swaminathan, Dr Kasturi Rangan and Nobel Laureate Dr Lee Hartwell among others.
Detailing on the charitable projects, MAM vice-chairman Swami Amritaswarupananda said: “In Uttarakhand, the Mata Amritanandamayi Math will build approximately 500 houses... These will be the totality of homes destroyed in 42 selected villages in the districts of Rudraprayag and Uttarkashi.”
He said the MAM would also provide scholarships to poor children in Uttarakhand and pension to widows and physically challenged, besides building an orphanage/care home for children who no longer have a proper care structure in place. It would empower women by helping them set up home-based self help groups (SHGs).
On the plan to adopt 101 villages, Swami Amritaswarupananda said: “In order to accomplish this, the MAM will draw upon the totality of the humanitarian programmes it has undertaken over the past 30 years.”
The Amrita Self-Reliant Village Programme (Amrita Swasrayagramam) would ensure that every villager has a proper home and that the villages have school buildings, community halls and street lighting, he said. Other aspects of the programme would include establishing a free computer-oriented vocational training institute in each village and a provision for tablet-based after-school tutoring to children.
“We will ensure that the adopted villages will have basic health facilities, trained health workers and access to clean water and nutrition,” he said.
The SHG programme of the Math being employed in the Uttarakhand relief package — the Amrita SREE (Self-Reliant Education and Employment) Programme — would be run in the 101 adopted villages as well.
“Through Amrita SREE, Amma’s ashram has put over one lakh women throughout India into more than 6,000 SHGs...” he said.
On the tutoring plan, Dr Raghu Raman, Director of Amrita University’s Centre for Research in Advanced Technologies for Education, said Amrita has developed a unique tablet-based multimedia learning programme, taking into account the learning needs of multi-grade rural students. He said it is designed to work where there is no internet connectivity.
Among the Amrita University-developed technologies introduced were a low cost, low power, wearable ECG-monitoring device that would allow patients to avail of real-time ECG-monitoring without hospitalisation; a wearable safety device that empowers women to stealthily contact family and police when in distress; and a Portable Electronic Health Record stored in a pen drive.