Gandhigram - Symbolic Start

It was a coincidence that the first stop during my recent roadtrip in rural TamilNadu was at an organization founded in 1947 symbolizing the start of new India’s journey. I was surprised to know that there were two individuals behind this private initiative, as the general impression is that the Gandhigram was an institution started by the Central Government. It took the daughter of a powerful business family (though widowed young at 12, she was encouraged by her husband’s wishes to study further and re-marry) and a Shanktiniketan product to start Gandhigram. Dr T S Soundram, who went on to qualify as a medical practitioner from Delhi and later served as a deputy minister of education in the Union Cabinet headed by Jawaharlal Nehru, was certainly made of compassion for the underprivileged. She then married Dr G Ramachandran, a pioneering gentleman freedom fighter with farsighted outlook (whom Gandhiji cited as a key reason for his endorsement of Travancore movement) and even had the marriage blessed by Gandhi himself. The Gandhigram started on an inspired note when a landlord donated a vast track of land, which gathered momentum and eventually 125 acres of land was donated by the villagers. It is located near Dindigul on the NH-7 betwen Dindigul and Madurai. Gandhigram soon expanded into a gamut of activities ranging from running hospitals to educating widows to orphanages to Agriculture.

With this backdrop, no doubt it has grown into a model where bus loads of tourists visit almost every week from all over the country to learn from. Because of the parentage and the team of dedicated people who are involved, it has retained a prominent place in the minds of Government and NGOs for social service. Today, it is the first stop for a pilot for any of the projects conceived by agencies like CAPART, NABARD, RUTAG,KVIC etc. Almost all major political leaders have graced the institution and its work. The excellent work done/being done in the areas of health and education have tansformed many rural lives. But if one looks at the scale of economic impact of the development models, none is visible other than riding the SHG wave like many other less distinguished entities. Given the headstart, it is bound to raise expectations, but perhaps the focus was not on economic issues for a long time, given the non-existent access to healthcare and education in the early 50s and 60s.

Like many other players in the social sector, there is no financial information available on their website, but the annual report thankfully has the balance sheet and income and expenditure statement (which is again a rarity in the sector). The sustainability is not in doubt with almost 50% of income being generated from its own services coupled with a wide variety of assets, endowment funds, investments etc, but in absence of breakups, 50% expenditure in Institutional salaries (other than program expenditure) and almost 40% of assets in Fixed Deposits and Bank accounts do not augur well for efficacy. May be the proximity to Government and the multiple cross holding structure among the various entities like university, trust, society etc all in the name of Gandhigram have acted as dampeners. Though the Secretary of the Trust, a committed elderly gentleman who was a former civil servant, was proud to state that Dr APJ Abdul Kalam visited them on the third day after his tenure as President of India was over, I would have been glad if he had narrated a few achievements of the institution with the same pride and tone.