2023-24

Annual Descriptive Report (ADR) for FY 2023-2024

Ramakrishna Mission, Shillong is a branch of Ramakrishna Mission, headquarters at Belur Math, near Kolkata. The Shillong Centre was started in 1937. At present, services provided through this centre, comes under three main categories viz. General, Medical & Educational. Spiritual activities are mostly carried out at the main campus situated at Laitumkhrah, Shillong – 793003. Health Services are provided from Charitable Dispensary Campus at Laitumkhrah Main Road.  Educational & Cultural Services are provided mostly from Vivekananda Cultural Centre (VCC) Campus at Quinton Road, Shillong –793001

Following activities were conducted by the Ramakrishna Mission, Shillong during the year   2023-24:

        (A) General

       (i)   Spiritual

         Apart from daily Morning Prayer, Evening Arati and Bhajans, and Fortnightly Rama Nama Sankirtanam, 2 Bhakta Sammelans and 23 Spiritual Discourses  were held in Ashrama Campus at Laitumkhrah. The Birth Anniversaries of Sri Ramakrishna, Sri Ma Sarada and Swami Vivekananda as well as Celebrations like Janmashtami, Durga Puja, Kali Puja, Shivaratri, Christmas-eve were duly observed. 41 discourses on Srimad Bhagavatam were conducted by Swami Hitakamananda, Secretary, and were uploaded on Ashrama’s YouTube Channel.

Exhibition–Cum-Sale of Ramakrishna Vivekananda Literature:

Ashram/Mission maintains a beautiful Exhibition-cum-Sales of books, CDs, posters, photos, lockets, etc. on Sri Ramakrishna, Sri Ma Sarada, Swami Vivekananda, Vedanta and religious life. Books are available in Sanskrit, English, Hindi, Bengali, Assamese and Khasi languages.  Total amount of sales was about 3.5 lakhs during the year 2023-24.

2. Welfare Activities:

1. During this period Shillong Centre continued its three units of Integrated Child Care projects self-funded by the Centre viz. (i) Gadadhar Abhudaya Prakalpa (3 units) – Ashrama Campus (Class 1-8), Lyngiong (Class 1-5) & RR Colony (Class 1-8) that benefitted 150 children during the year 2023-2024.
2.  During this period Shillong Centre assisted 46 needy people in the form of Pecuniary Help, Medical Help and Educational Help.

    (B) Medical

(i) Charitable Dispensary: A three storied Charitable Dispensary with a good Pathological Laboratory, X-Ray, E.C.G., Ultrasonography, Dental, Eye, Physiotherapy, General Medicine and Homeopathy Departments functioned as usual. Total 86119 Patients were treated during this year as classified below:

(ii) Mobile Medical Unit: A Mobile Dispensary which serves about 70 neighboring villages of the state.  Total 34651 Patients were treated during the year. The details of Patients treated during this year are given below:

C) Educational

(i)    Hostel for Tribal Boys: 26 Tribal Boys’ hailing from different Northeast states (7 Khasi, 8 Chakma, Jaintia 5,  Naga 4 & Barman 2) studying in Classes V – X were provided free boarding and lodging facility.

(iii) Vivekananda Cultural Centre: It is located at the same premises where Swami Vivekananda had delivered the last public lecture of his life on 27 April 1901. Following activities were carried out during the year 2023-24.

       (a) Computer Training:  Computer Training Centre with 340 Computers, 12 Laboratories, 7 Classrooms & 46 Faculties provided various courses. Out of above, three months courses were conducted for 5,597 youth during the year 2023-24 as detailed below:

(b) Art Training: The institute provides Drawing & Painting Training for children of age group 7 – 15 on every Saturdays. There were 415 trainees during 2023-2024.

       (c) Vivekananda Youth Forum: An interested group of young men and women within age group 15-35 met on a common platform under the guidance of monastic teachers and professional counsellors to train themselves on personality development, moral and spiritual education, nationalistic outlook and traditional Indian heritage and culture every Sunday. Total 40 sessions were conducted attended by 17 members on an average during the year 2023-2024.       

       (d) Brahmananda Library: It is the first computerized public library in Shillong. It has got about 13459 books 3 dailies and 13 periodicals per month. Here apart from telephonic enquiry and renewal of books, CD/ Internet browsing facility was also made available to users. During the year the member’s attendance was 5120 and 119 books were issued to them.

       (e) Celebrations: 123^nd Anniversary of Swami Vivekananda’s visit to Shillong, National Youth Day. were organized in a befitting manner in which about 300 people participated. In the Annual Cultural Competition organized by this Centre, about 1500 students participated during the year.

(f) Sanskriti (Training Programme on Values & Indian Culture): - The programme is intended to unburden children from their week’s academic pressure and monotony. It is imparted in a playful manner through Yoga, Meditation, Recitation, Story Telling, Games, Chanting and Singing of Devotional/ Patriotic Songs etc. Students are also taught spoken Khasi and English. It is open to all children irrespective of community and religion for the age group 7-12. In 2023-24, 89 children were enrolled in this activity.

(g)        Language & Communication:

            Language & Communication development activities were conducted for three months with financial assistance from Headquarters in seven sessions. The total number of students were 422 as classified below:

(h)        Blood Donation Camp

A Blood Donation Camp was organized on 12 January 2024 as part of the National Youth Day celebration at Vivekananda Cultural Centre in which 23 young men and women donated blood.

A trilingual (Khasi, English and Hindi) e-zine ‘Ka Jingshai – The Light’, which happens to be the first of its kind, was inaugurated on 27^th April, 2020 by Most Revered Swami Smarananandaji Maharaj, President, Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission from Belur Math through video conferencing to mark the 120^th Anniversary of Swami Vivekananda’s lecture in Shillong, which happened to be the last public lecture of his life. During 2023-24 two issues of 4^th Volume of the Magazine were published.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     (Swami Hitakamananda)

                                                Place: Laitumkhrah

                                                Date: 20^th June 2024.