Ekal Sansthan, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)-inspired organisation that sets up one-teacher schools across the country with a focus on rural and tribal areas, will open 60 schools in Lahaul-Spiti district of Himachal Pradesh as part of its initiative to expand the network of such schools to all border areas. The district abuts China, and there have been reports of heightened Chinese activities across the international border close to it during the Doklam crisis in August.
Thirty such schools have already come up, and the organisation will soon scale up the number to 60.
“We are aiming at spreading these schools in vulnerable, border areas. We have also sought to spread our network in Punjab, Kashmir and near the Bangladesh border in Assam,” Manju Srivastava of Ekal Sansthan told The Hindu .
She said the organisation is autonomous, but draws ideological inspiration from the RSS. The attempt to expand to border areas has three objectives. One, the idea is to connect border areas with the national “mainstream” through education. Second, the Ekal believes such an initiative will better organise border villages that are vulnerable. She added that imparting education and skills to children in border areas would better prepare them for a good life with opportunities for livelihood.
Ms. Srivastava made a presentation on the initiatives of the Ekal Sansthan at a national workshop on school education organised by the Ministry of Human Resource Development earlier this week. There are 58,227 Ekal Vidyalayas in the country now, imparting education to 15,35,965 children. They are spread over 58,000 villages in 22 States.
