Community Living:

[ The Anandwan Community ]

Early on, Baba Amte recognized the inter-dependence of human beings with each other, and the natural world, and that embodies the spirit of Anandwan. It was the epicenter from which Baba's Knit India movements, Peace Marches, Pakistan-India Peace Missions and communal harmony during the Hindu-Muslim riots in Bombay were managed and supported. Leaders from all walks of life from His Holiness, The Dalai Lama to Lata Mangeshkar and Count Arthur Tarnowski have visited Anandwan, to bear witness to its vitality and complexity.

Anandwan is a self-contained village where everyone pitches in to do their share. Meals are cooked in communal kitchens. Men and women work in the fields, plant trees in their downtime, and work in the various workshops.

Children attend school, youth attend university or learn a trade at Yuvagram or Sandhi Niketan. There is a post-office and a bank, community centers, and a store.

It all started with one hut in Anandwan. Today, all over the projects several types of houses provide shelter to its inhabitants. Homes are constructed to keep the heat out and withstand the heavy rainfalls of the monsoon. All residents can be sure that their basic needs are covered ­ food, clothing, shelter and medical services. There is no police force ­ most differences between residents are mediated by other members of the community. Senior citizens mentor younger folk and help take care of the little children.

- Gokul is a residence for 60 children who are either orphans or children of leprosy patients. Here, the children receive food, accommodation, clothing, books, stationary, medical care, transport facilities to school and other services.
- Uttarayan is a home for senior citizens caters to around 30 persons, again providing free food, accommodation and healthcare within a caring environment.
- Sneh Savali, established in 1983, is a home for both male and female leprosy patients who are aged. It currently cares for 181 senior citizens.
- Loti Raman Home for Senior Citizens (Wisdom Bank) takes inspiration from Baba's aphorism "Add life to years, not years to life... Tomorrow is dawning!" The vision is for Anandwan to benefit from the wisdom, knowledge and experience of senior citizens who have been long associated with the organization.
- Sukh Sadan (The House of Happiness) is a commune of rehabilitated leprosy patients where each social family is formed by two couples, who commit themselves to care for an older couple, affirming the enduring values of the traditional Indian family unit. The home is designed so the room for the older couple is flanked, on either side, by the rooms for the younger couples. The young repay the old for the legacy of well being they inherit from them.

Today, there are four such communes at Anandwan (each in Baba's words, "a Kibbutz for the sick") where nearly 2,500 people live, making it one of the largest communities of physically challenged people in the world. These include about 1,500 leprosy patients and cured leprosy patients, and another 1,000 people with other disabilities. Apart from Sukh Sadan, there is Mukti Sadan (The House of Fredom), Krishi Sadan (the House of Farms) and Mitrangan (the Patio for Friends). Each commune has a kitchen, storeroom, land, and clinic.

- Muktangan, established in 1974, is the center for cultural activities. It is where weddings take place at Anandwan. It also serves as a reading room, a children's park and a home for animals. In 1999, the Anandwan Emporium Sales Center opened here.

In Anandwan, there is a unique monument ­ to "the anonymous tree." All events at Anandwan begin by placing a wreath on this monument as a social ritual. In fact, trees are extremely important in the life of Anandwan. Saplings are treated as special VIP guests at all events. They are brought to the site royally in a palanquin and then planted with ceremony and pomp!

Energy for cooking comes from the biogas plant, and food comes from the Anandwan and Somnath fields. Rainwater harvesting ensures that there is sufficient water for all. Best of all, Anandwan has some of the cleanest toilets in rural India! Developed in a way to minimize the use of water (which is extremely scarce) and maximize biogas production, the toilets are one of the highlights of the tour to this wonderful experiment in community living!

This is a journey to a place like no other on the face of this earth. Anandwan.

She celebrates new life with the planting of a tree. She buries the ashes of her dead anonymously, under the cool shade of a growing sapling.

She lives in harmony with nature and her fellow-beings.

On her streets, there are children, barefoot, carefree. Laughing and signing ­ that's their preferred way of communicating. They may not be able to hear the sounds of the world, but they taught me how to listen to the sounds of my soul.

In her workshops, art is created by fingers that society rejected. There's a sense of purpose, and belonging, and commitment; in every member of her family.

She has turned wastelands into forests, and desert into fields of green and gold.

This woman... Anandwan, she cannot see, so she leads me by instinct... and when Truth is veiled by Darkness, that's the only way to lead.

© Neesha Mirchandani, January 2001

Back to Top

[ The Anandwan Economy ]

Over the years, Anandwan has expanded its commercial activities, where the rehabilitated members of the community together produce everything ranging from cloth, mattresses, carpets, ready-to-wear garments, leader products, metal furniture, including iron beds, desks, and benches, tricycles, metal storage bins, water coolers, and air conditioners. The remarkable thing about these industrial production units is that they are unlike any factory to be found in society today.

Anandwan is a self-contained village where everyone pitches in to do their share. Meals are cooked in communal kitchens. Men and women work in the fields, plant trees in their downtime, and work in the various workshops.These are no ordinary workers. They are neither laborers who require supervision and monitoring to ensure efficient production; nor are they self-employed, self-exploiting, small-scale producers.

These are people working with a motivation, born out of a sense of belonging to a shared community, which is very much their own, for which they are collectively responsible. It is this feeling that engenders a deep sense of self-respect and dignity among the citizens of Anandwan. There is little charity here; there is immense labor of love. Much of the production is sold, but more importantly, these workshops serve as practical training facilities where disabled residents and rural youth are trained in handloom weaving, tailoring, and other activities.

Together, the handloom and powerloom units produced nearly 100,000 meters of cloth in the financial year 1999-2000, which was valued at Rs. 3.5 million (around $74,000).

In the financial year 1999-2000, Anandwan produced nearly 20,000 square feet of mattresses and carpets worth over Rs. 300,000 (approximately $6,000).

Take a look at the intricate craftsmanship of these hands (show in photo to the right), one can begin to understand the deep insight underlying Baba's conviction that "Work builds, charity destroys." What a loss to this world had these creative artists been condemned to benevolent charity!

In the greeting card design unit, cards are made out of discarded waste and natural products. For example, artists craft beautiful scenes from dried banana leaves or used x-ray film is recycled to make a New Year's card! Anandwan's shoes from recycled tires are famous!

The Anandwan printing press prints notebooks for the four schools and colleges run by Maharogi Sewa Samiti, and all the stationery required by Anandwan. Apart from this, it carries out printing work for several outside agencies that prefer to order their printing work from a nonprofit. During the financial year 1999-2000, Anandwan completed printing orders worth close to Rs. 1.5 million (approximately $32,000).

The metal furniture workshop produces iron beds, desks, chairs, benches, metal bins, sieves, baking trays and other metal items. The workshop's output in the year 1999-2000 was more than Rs.1 million. (around $21,000).

They also make several assistive devices, such as tricycles operated by hand, for patients who cannot walk, hospital equipment, special kind of footwear made without any nails or sharp objects for leprosy patients, wheel chairs, and artificial limbs, are all designed and manufactured in Anandwan. They are distributed amongst the residents, free of cost. The surplus is sold outside, in the surrounding area. Almost 500 tricycles are manufactured annually.

At Anandwan, they realized that capital-intensive rural development projects have one major flaw. They frequently fail to utilize human power, a resource found in excess in rural areas. MSS blends urban and rural values, human and machine power. As Gandhi said "machine to suit to the rhythm of persons rather than persons to suit to the rhythm of machine."

Back to Top

[ Arts and Entertainment ]

"Happiness dies when not shared" -- Baba Amte

Musical Orchestra
At Anandwan, it was common for blind children to attend school till they were 14 years old. Then they would return home - but teachers and administrators realized that blind girls in particular were having a very difficult time adjusting to family life. Their family members consider them a 'burden' as it is extremely difficult to find a husband due to their disability. Many talented students from the Anand Blind School ended up depressed and hopeless. Due to the seriousness of this problem, MSS made an effort to train students to be performers, singers, and dancers.

There was a two-fold purpose - one, it would give them self-esteem and confidence to successfully perform in front of large audiences. Secondly, it could potentially give them an occupation that would provide financial security and reduce the burden on their families.

The first Musical Orchestra performance took place on 14th July 2002 at Anandwan. In the beginning, the project included only a few artists and a few musical instruments. Vijaya Chauhan of UNICEF donated funds through the Zilla Parishad (School Board). Share and Care Foundation established a Cultural and Musical Training and Performance Center for young Blind girls and boys. The musical orchestra has become extremely popular and receives requests to perform from around the state. Other members of the Anandwan community have also joined the talent pool. In fact - as Dr. Vikas says, "I had no idea some of the hidden talents of residents I've known for a long time... Its wonderful to see them appreciated and validated on stage."

Apart from the orchestra the children from the various schools performed several other drama and stage programs.

Visitors From All Over The World
Though Anandwan is deep in the heartland of India, it attracts visitors from all over the world. The approach of giving people a chance instead of charity has been a role model to many. Different kinds of workshops and seminars are held in the community. For example, in July 2003 an Amnesty International Congress will take place at Anandwan. As the headquarters for Maharogi Sewa Samiti, Anandwan also collaborates with international NGOs. For example there is the annual work camp from Nouvelle Planete, Switzerland, during the summer. These undergraduate students collect plastic from neighboring villages, and contribute their talents to Anandwan, and share in the community life. The campus is always abuzz with interesting people and the transfer of ideas and knowledge keeps the community vibrant.

Art
Art is encouraged at Anandwan. Gani, who runs Anandwan's greeting card training workshops at Yuvagram, created an image of a tribal girl he immortalized in dried banana leaf art. To create this masterful portrait, he must dry banana leaves, and then he must carefully select different sections to create the desired color effects. He uses no paint ­ all the colors are natural!

Back to Top