Shyam Gupta, mentor of Ekal

This is the story of Shyam Gupt, mentor of the Ekal Movement.

Born in Pakistan, his family was among the many which came to India after partition. He was 4 then. Studying at the Ram Krishna Mission school in Kanpur he was greatly influenced by Swami Vivekanand. And this carved his way ahead to help the poor tribals and vanvasis. On his mission he travelled a lot and one such visit towards a village in Kalahandi region of Odisha in 1980s changed his life once for all.

In 1988 he took on himself to cater to the needs of tribals in Jharkhand and Odisha. And the Ekal Movement started. In the initial years Gupt took time to inculcate in volunteers the need of Ekal and started with opening of One Teacher Schools. In the first decade the expansion was slow but steady. And then the real growth started. Today Ekal has its operation in some 55,000 villages around the country with its education programmes to provide literacy, health care, empowerment activities – all to see integrated village development where its residents are literate, healthy, economically strong with good ‘sanskars’.

The complete Ekal Movement is bases on volunteerism and Shyam Gupt is the master motivator who has made this possible with personal contact with thousands of rural and urban volunteers.

To know more about Ekal visit www.ekal.org