Directory of National Volunteer Organisations संगठन निर्देशिका

Education

• Vidya Bharati Akhil Bharatiya Shiksha Sansthan — national body (1977) for a large network of schools, including the Saraswati Shishu Mandirs, the first of which opened at Gorakhpur in 1952.
• Ekal Vidyalaya — one-teacher schools in tribal and rural villages, begun in 1986.
• Vivekananda Kendra — founded by Eknath Ranade in 1972; schools, service and spiritual work, especially in the North-East.
• Bharatiya Shikshan Mandal — founded in 1969; works on education policy and Indian approaches to education.
• Samskrita Bharati — the Sanskrit-speaking movement begun in Bengaluru in 1981, known for its ten-day spoken-Sanskrit camps.

Service

• Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram — founded by Balasaheb Deshpande at Jashpur in 1952; education, health and welfare among tribal communities.
• Seva Bharati — service work in slums and poor areas, begun in Delhi in 1979 and now present in many states.
• Deendayal Research Institute — founded by Nanaji Deshmukh; integrated rural development, notably at Chitrakoot.
• Bharat Vikas Parishad — founded in 1963; service and cultural programmes run largely by professionals.
• Sewa International — a service organisation working in disaster relief and development in India and abroad.

Labour, farmers and economy

• Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh — trade union founded by Dattopant Thengadi on 23 July 1955; one of India's largest central trade unions.
• Bharatiya Kisan Sangh — farmers' organisation founded in 1979.
• Swadeshi Jagran Manch — founded in 1991 to promote economic self-reliance.
• Laghu Udyog Bharati — organisation of small and micro industries (1994).
• Sahakar Bharati — promotes the cooperative movement (1978).
• Akhil Bharatiya Grahak Panchayat — consumer-rights organisation (1974).

Religion and culture

• Vishva Hindu Parishad — founded in Bombay in August 1964 to bring together Hindu religious leaders and communities; led the Ayodhya temple movement from 1984.
• Bajrang Dal — founded in 1984 as the youth wing of the VHP. It describes its aim as protecting Hindu interests; it has been criticised by human-rights groups and investigated in some states over incidents of violence.
• Durga Vahini — women's youth wing of the VHP.
• Rashtra Sevika Samiti — women's organisation founded by Lakshmibai Kelkar at Wardha in 1936.
• Sanskar Bharati — arts and culture organisation (1981).

Students, youth and scholarship

• Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) — student organisation founded in 1949; one of the largest student bodies in India.
• Vijnana Bharati — promotes Indian science and indigenous knowledge.
• Kreeda Bharati — promotes sports and traditional games.
• Akhil Bharatiya Adhivakta Parishad — organisation of lawyers.
• Arogya Bharati — health awareness and traditional medicine.

Outreach and overseas

• Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh — the overseas counterpart, which runs shakhas among Indian communities in many countries; its first shakhas abroad began in Kenya in the late 1940s.
• Muslim Rashtriya Manch — outreach forum among Muslims, founded in 2002.
• Rashtriya Sikh Sangat — outreach forum among Sikhs, founded in 1986.

Publications

• Organiser — English weekly, founded in 1947.
• Panchjanya — Hindi weekly, founded in 1948; Deendayal Upadhyaya and Atal Bihari Vajpayee were associated with its early years.

A note on politics

Members of the movement also helped found political parties — the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (1951) and later the Bharatiya Janata Party (1980). In keeping with this section's educational purpose, we do not cover party politics.

Frequently asked questions