Runadhar Trust’s new approach to helping ryots’ kin

Nagpur: To provide stability to family members, especially children, of farmers who have committed suicide, nine prominent persons from the city have come together and established — Runadhar Charitable Society. They plan to establish a hostel and provide skill development training to kin of deceased farmers and monetary assistance every month. 

The nine persons include chairman of Vishvaraj Infrastructure Limited Arun Lakhani, who is president of the trust, corporator Sandip Joshi and Dr Pramod Giri, both vice-presidents, secretary Parag Saraf, joint-secretary Vrushali Deshpande, treasurer Dr Manoj Singarkhiya, and Dayal Mulchandani, Deepa Kale and Prashant Dani as members.

The society and its activities differ from that been done or planned by other social organizations. The team of nine persons established the trust two years ago. They appointed two students who had completed Master in Social Work and conducted a survey to find out what exactly is the main requirement for family members, especially children, of farmers who committed suicide.

Joshi told TOI the initiatives will begin from Nagpur and Wardha district and later across remaining areas of Vidarbha. "Our team's survey over two years included visits to houses of 350 families of deceased farmers in the two districts. One time or regular monetary assistance was not found to be a permanent solution. We realized the need to encourage and train the kin of deceased farmers to get employment or establish businesses. Therefore, we plan to establish a hostel in which skill development training will be given to only kin of deceased farmers along with accommodation in the city. Hostel project will be completed in current year itself. More activities will be planned 

in later stages," he said.

Joshi added that the project will begin with financial assistance to 100 families of deceased farmers. "We have identified 100 families from 14 tehsils in Wardha district and four tehsils in Nagpur district. We received response from 100 persons wishing to adopt a family each. We will deposit cheque of Rs4,000 per month in the account of all 100 families for one year. Then the initiative will be stopped, as we feel continuous financial assistance is not a solution. This is planned as we have to begin with some concrete step," he said.

The society has organized a programme to begin monetary assistance to 100 families on January 26. RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat will inaugurate the project and distribute cheques to the identified families.

The plan to begin from Wardha and Nagpur districts also differentiates the society's initiative from others. Most social organizations have started their initiatives in Yavatmal district despite the fact that farmers suicides are also witnessed in other districts of the region.

 This New is Originally Posted on The Time of India