Culture & social awareness
The days when a whole village is already standing in one place are the days worth using.
What we do
Festivals bring the crowd. We use the crowd.
A large part of the Sanstha’s registered objects concerns cultural and religious observance — festivals, jayantis, and the upkeep of temples and community halls — alongside national days such as 26 January and 15 August. This is what the Sanstha was started to do and what most of its members give their time to.
It is also, practically, our best platform. A village turns out for a jayanti in numbers that no awareness camp will ever draw. So the same gathering carries the message: keep the girl in school, do not marry her at sixteen, take the addiction in your house seriously, do not let a self-styled healer treat a sick child.
Our memorandum is explicit that the Sanstha works to end superstition and orthodoxy, and campaigns against social evils including addiction and child marriage. It is equally explicit that the Sanstha stays out of politics. Both of those hold at every event we run.
A katha programme at the community hall — the kind of gathering at which the Sanstha does most of its awareness work.
Aarti at the close of a programme, with kalash and offerings placed by families of the village.
What support pays for
Support a programme in your own village.
If you are from Safidon block and want a programme — a jayanti, a national day, an awareness camp at your school — the Sanstha will help organise it. Tell us the date and the place and we will come and see it with you first.
- Festivals & jayantisObservance, arrangements and community meals
- National days26 January and 15 August programmes with local schools
- Temples & hallsConstruction, upkeep and running of places of worship and assembly
- Anti-addictionAwareness against alcohol and drug use, aimed at young men
- Against child marriageTalking to families before the decision is made, not after
- Against superstitionSteering families towards a doctor rather than a healer