Vasatigrih – (Hostel – Chatravas)
Objective – To support students
staying in remote hilly region to continue their education.
To support the orphaned
students.
Mulshi is a hilly tehsil of Pune district. It has 119
villages. 52 villages are surrounded by Mulshi dam. About
20-25 villages
have no road approach. Villagers have to climb down/up
for 1 and half hours to 2 hours to reach the nearest
approach
road. About 8-10 villages have no electricity. Their only
earning source is barley & Nagli.cultivation. During
winter and summer season their earning source is labour work.
Many villagers migrate to the nearest village during summer
due to scarcity of water. They can not get medical aid at
right time and hence average life expectancy is too low.
Ladies are seriously affected by all such adverse conditions.
We identified these problems and decided to start a hostel
(Vasti grah) for such students.
In 1996 Shri Chintamani Chitle (Mani) offered his services
in this project. We started Vastigrah under the banner
of Shree Pratishthan in 1996 at Pirangut for students of
Junior
college, because in those days, the conditions of roads
were below average & students had to spend 4-5 hours in travelling.
S.T. frequency was also less. About 40-50 students took advantage
of this facility. During the year 2007-08 we realized that
the strength is getting reduced due to improved road conditions & transport
facilities. Hence, we discontinued this activity at Pirangut.
In 2001-02 we extended this project for school children
staying in the hilly region, specially in villages surrounded
by
water of Mulshi dam, we started one hostel at Male with
support of Keshav Madhav Pratishthan and another of Shileshwar
under
the banner of Shree Pratishthan.
The capacity of both Male & Shileshwar hostels is of
about 20 students each. The education of girls from these
villages was the next target which we achieved in 2007. We
started a girls hostel at Shileshwar. Mrs. Poonam Mehta extended
her support by offering her farm house for girls hostel.
10 girls are taking advantage of this facility. Thus we are
continuing education of about 40 boys & girls in these
hostels.
Mulshi is a hilly tehsil. About 52 villages are located
on hills. They have no approach roads. Students in these
villages
can study only up to the 4th standard. In co-ordination
with Shree Pratisthan we have established hostels for these
students.
The details and highlights of the hostels