Shegaon Case study - Management of Religious and Charitable institution

Case study:

Management of Religious and Charitable institution

Synopsis:

Gajanan Maharaj charitable Trust, Village & Taluka Shegaon, District Buldhana, Maharashtra State, India is a charitable organization, started in 12-09-1908 in the auspicious presence of holy Saint Shree Gajanan Maharaj of Shegaon, in Vidharbh region of Maharashtra State, India. Vidharbh region of shegaon in Maharashtra is arid region with low rainfall.

The organization is run on three basic pillars of Charity:  Spiritual, service to mankind, Professional management with vision.  Trust carries 42 different services of the organization and other social activities completely run by volunteers in most professional way with human face, using local ambiance while of international standards.  This trust is the finest example of Spiritual, service oriented, Professional management with human face. This case study is for review.

USP:  Vidarbh is an arid region hence there is less natural beauty. It is also out of the way for normal travel routes. The management turned this place in to a religious cum tourist spot by developing a large artificial lake (Anand Sagar), various gardens and tourism facilities surrounding this lake thereby attracting many tourists to this place and also giving good facilities to them. Most of the guest houses run by the trust are also in this area. This also created a local employment in the area and also cultural activities keep the locals busy on good path of adhyatma.

Details:                                                                             

Gajanan Maharaj (Maharaj is said for a king or a superior man) charitable Trust, Village & Taluka Shegaon, District Buldhana, Maharashtra State, India is a Charitable organization which is at about 4 hours journey from Nagpur in Central India.  Holy saint Shree Gajanan Maharaj established this trust on 12-09-1908 for service of mankind and then he left for heavenly abode on 8 Sept 1910. A Samadhi ( A place of burial for holy saint) is a well decorated place along with a temple of lord Ram just above this.  Average 45,000 Devotees visit Samadhi every day (more than 16 Million per year). Some of the famous devotees of Gajanan Maharaj includes former CEO of Citi Bank, Dr. Vikram Pandit.

The trust is run completely on donations of Devotees and there is no government aid.  The kind of management you will see is commendable.

Management at Glance:

Description	Qty
Number of Trustees	12
Full time employees	2,000
Volunteers (There is a waiting list of 1000 volunteers from 50 villages). Volunteers do service free of charge.	8,625
Number of surrounding villages involved for volunteering	318
Average number of Devotees visiting every day	45,000
Free short spiritual lunch (Mahaprasad) distributed daily between 10 am to 1 pm at temple to number of devotees	20,000
People seating for Mahaprasad at a time.	5,000
Peak time (Festival time) free Mahaprasad distribution for number of devotees.	100,000
Total short spiritual lunch distributed at all places ( AT temple premises and other places where lodging is arranged for devotees)	45,000

Volunteers: Volunteers are the backbone of their services. They are well trained, courteous, modest.  with complete devotion to their work. Volunteers are of all castes and creeds and from completely illiterate to highly educated class, however common theme behind their services is devotion to their spiritual guru and nishkam karmayog (Selfless Act).

Accommodation at Shegaon

The Trust runs 4 residential complexes in shegaon with most moderate rates between Rs 200 to Rs 1000 per night depending on type of room. There are big dining halls where Breakfast, lunch, Dinner is provided at very nominal rates for approximately 9000 people daily.  All accommodation complexes have reception centers. All of them have special breast feeding rooms for ladies with babies. We have not seen such an arrangement anywhere till now. All Bhakta niwas (Accommodation place for devotees) have well maintained gardens, recreation for children, arrangement for tea/coffee/snacks / lunch/ dinner at nominal rates.

Accommodation figures at glance

Bhakta Niwas no. 1 & 2 near temple	160 rooms	450 cots
Bhakta Niwas Hatikhana Premises	416 rooms	1538 cots
Bhakta Niwas Ananad Vihar Complex premises	662 rooms	2608 cots
Bhakta Niwas Ananad Visava Complex premises	472 rooms	2823 cots
Total	1710 rooms	7419 cots

Bus service: The Trust runs free of charge bus service with 5 luxury buses to carry people from Shegaon Railway station to temple and at various accommodation places as well as Anand sagar. Devotees can also park their vehicle at designated places free of charge in Accommodation premises.

Anand Sagar Project:

Looking at scarcity of water in and surrounding shegaon, Trust created an artificial lake called Anand Sagar by lifting water from “Man river” which is 9 kms away from shegaon, thereby increasing water table of the area. As a typical management thumb rule, the trust turn the crises into opportunity. The organization turned this artificial lake into a tourist spot by having a huge garden surrounding  this lake and keeping various tourist attractions with spiritual and children recreational activities such as Vivekanand meditation centre, Navgraha Temple (9 Planets temple), musical fountain show at night at amphi theatre, artificial island named Dwarka inside lake for resting, Saints Garden (place where Statues of 18 ancient saints, from 18 Indian states are kept),  small aquarium, a small children train, various  rides for children. 

Anand Sagar is not merely a commercial amusement park but it is strongly based on the spiritual heritage and the grand Hindu Culture. Anand Sagar also respects all faiths and religions from different states. It has idols of many Saints from India.  Looking at vast area to observe, as a care for old people and children, there are wheel chairs for old, Prams for small children, umbrellas to protect against sun. Drinking water and toilets are at every place while moving around the lake and garden. There are two big Meals and coffee houses inside children’s park area.

Anand Sagar figures at glance ( 1 acre = 4046.86 sq. meter)

Area of Anand Sagar tourist spot	350 acre
Area utilized till now	140 acre
Number of plants planted and maintained	1,00,000
Cost of Anand Sagar project in INR	3,000,000,000
Water lifting charges per day from river	50,00,000
Entry fee per visitor in INR	50

Branches:

The trust also has arrangements for lodging and boarding at 7 other religious places in India such as Pandharpur-Maharashtra ( 252 rooms, many social activities for Varkaris), Omkareshwar-Madhya Pradesh (104 rooms, allopathic clinic for travelers), Adgaon(Near Shegaon), Trimbakeshwar near Nashik- Maharashtra (194 rooms, mobile hospital for Tribals), Kapildhara near Nashik-Maharashtra, Alandi, Maharashtra (110 rooms, ambulance for varkaris), Girada near Aurangabad, Maharashtra( Allopathic / Homeopathic research centre, Naturopathy centre, mobile hospital, many other activities).

Social Services:

A.    Education:

1.     The Organization runs English medium school, Engineering college, Kindergarten school for Tribal.    

2.     It runs 4 hostels for boys and 3 hostels for girls.

3.     It has well equipped library which has more than 6500 spiritual and educational books.

4.     The trust runs Residential school for mentally retarded children. There are 27 trained teachers taking care of these children and training them in appropriate skills.

5.     From 1964, the trust is running “Varkari Shikshan Sanstha” which runs 4 year spiritual course in Varkari sect of Hinduism. About 100 students are taking advantage of this facility.

B.    Medical services: with the help of 3 mobile hospitals covering Allopathic, Ayurvedic, homeopathic, handicapped rehabilitation centers and physiotherapy centers everyday 2100 patients are attended.

1      Allopathic department: started in 1974, till 2013, has attended 79,39,642 patients. Has 5 ambulances with latest gadgets. All services free of charge.

2      Ayurvedic department: Started in 1963, till 2013 has attended 21,55,005 patients, free of charge.

3      Homeopathic department: started in 1973, till 2013 has attended 39,39,452 patients, free of charge.

4      Handicapped rehabilitation centre: Till 2013, 2,51,945 patients were attended. Special camp was organized for such patients which catered to 2584 patients and of which 400 patients were operated at Udaipur hospital in Rajasthan. All services free of charge.

5      Eye care camps: From 1975, the trust is organizing eye care camps every year and till now 13,642 patients were operated for operations such as cataract, free of charge.

C.    Various water provisions for farmers, Medical camps and aids on natural calamities are provided to local farmers.

Cleanliness: At all the above places (Temple, Accommodations, Anand Sagar) you will find a most clean premises, garden, lobbies etc.

Unmistakable execution: In spite of having so many visitors, the processes are so well laid down and staff/ volunteers trained and monitored, that there is no mistake done and no chaos at any of the above places.

Transparency in functioning: You will be surprised to note that every day, the notice board at the temple displays donation collections of previous day from all sources ( Rare in Indian trusts). All the processes are transparent and recorded on computer.

Vision of Trustees:

The vision of the trustees is to follow the principals of their spiritual guru, Shri Gajanan Maharaj, to serve the mankind. They understand that the donations given to trust are to serve poor and had to be utilized in most efficient way in a result oriented manner.

I feel everyone should visit such a nice place, irrespective of their religious ties.

Refernce:

1.     Website http://www.gajananmaharaj.org/sgmsenglish/samadhimandir.htm

2.     Pamphlet distributed at temple / Bhakt Niwas

3.     Personal visit at these places by author.

Presented by : Madhav G. Bhole

                      A1/302, Ajit Park CHS, Somwar Bazar,

                     Malad West, Mumbai 400064, India

Email: Madhavbhole99@Gmail.com

Whatsapp / Mob No.: +91-8451886759

END OF CASE STUDY.