Baikunthapur Tarun Sangha, West Bengal: Site visit
Anirban Dasgupta and Sharmistha Majumdar report….
The Sunderbans in West Bengal, an area of great natural beauty and ecological diversity, are located in the famous mangrove delta of the Ganga near the Bay of Bengal. The lush forested islands are internationally renowned for the Royal Bengal tiger. Unfortunately, though infested with tourists the year over, the Sunderbans are not a region of great prosperity. Threatened by poverty, natural calamity and illiteracy, this is probably one of the most under-developed parts of post-independence India. Most of the islands do not have electricity, telephone lines, proper sanitation or even a health centre…. amenities most of us privileged urbanites, completely take for granted.
Baikunthapur Tarun Sangha (BTS) is located in Kultali, the largest island in the Sunderbans and was founded in 1983 primarily to help in flood relief efforts. Since then, the activities of the organization have spread to health care, education and improving agricultural conditions in the area. Asha for Education has been involved with BTS since 2001 and has funded the construction of the school building as well as recurring expenses for running the primary school. (
We visited BTS during the winter of 2002: our 2-day experience was truly unforgettable. Though only 70 miles from Calcutta, the journey took us more than 7 hours and involved all possible modes of transport starting with a train ride and ending with a long sojourn down the Thakura river through the famous mangrove swamps! We were accompanied by Susanta Giri, the head of the organization, a young man from the village, who left the island for higher education in Calcutta. Though well established in a comfortable urban setting, Susanta has clearly not forgotten his roots. The entire venture rests on his shoulders; he is extremely resourceful, full of new ideas and very innovative.
After a long walk from the shore, we reached BTS and were given an overwhelming welcome by the children of the school. Patha Bhavan, as it is called, currently has 195 children, 98 of which are girls. Though there are other primary schools in the area, most of them are over-crowded and have very few teachers. Patha Bhavan follows a creative curriculum called “Basketful of learning”, which aims to inspire the creative and scientific temperament of the children. The morning session consists of regular classes, whereas the afternoon session is devoted to extra-curricular activities. The children are provided with midday meals everyday as well as uniforms, school bags and other educational material; according to the villagers, this itself is a big incentive. The teachers of Patha Bhavan are also being trained at Vikramshila educational resource center. We wandered through the classrooms, interacted with the kids and the teachers and were entertained by a series of impromptu performances of rhymes, songs and dances. Later, we met many of the parents both in a meeting, which BTS organized, as well as in the village, when we were touring the island in the evening.
Just before dinner, we were entertained with a very enjoyable performance by many of the local musicians and needless to say, were completely impressed.
Education is not the sole aim of BTS: they strive for all-round development of the region. Towards this, they have set up a grain bank as well as a resource center for sustainable agriculture, where local trainers provide information about bio-fertilisers, kitchen gardening, medicinal plant cultivation and permaculture. BTS has also set up a primary health care center in the village and has purchased a mobile boat with medical equipment. The next step is to build an element of self-sustainability into the project. BTS is planning to develop fishery and poultry farming as well as build self-help groups and micro credit programs to partially defray the running expenses of the project. We met with each of these groups and had long discussions with them both in the evening and the morning after.
Throughout our trip, we were overwhelmed by the hospitality and warmth of all the villagers, who all came together to make us feel at home. Overall, the personal involvement and support of all the members of the local community really impressed us. Moreover, the enthusiastic participation of the local women in the BTS venture was truly noteworthy: from teaching to administration, the women are very much a part of all aspects of the working of the organisation.
We left BTS with lasting memories…and the hope that this truly commendable effort on a remote island, far away from the clutches of “modern urban civilisation”, is capable of growing into a model project and resource center.