A Unique Austerity-Divya Prem Seva Mission-Haridwar

Among the millions of devotees who came to bathe the Ganges at the Chandi Ghat in Haridwar, there was a young man who saw tears in the eyes of Alaknanda, the suffering of mother Ganga begging for the leprosy patients who lived on her ghat. Serpentine -the corpse's body, the pus falling from the wounds and the flies buzzing on it, the suffering of these battered patients who are suffering hell is not seen from this young RSS Pracharak. Surprisingly Chandi Ghat turned as Ashish Gautam’s workplace, where he stayed for a night stay only at Haridwar on October 1996.

There was a colony of leprosy near the ghat. The condition so worsened that some of them had broken their hands and their feet even. There were also eight patients who could not see, but when they treated them, the light of seven of them returned. Considering it God’s signal, 22 years ago today on January 12, 1997, Sanjay Chaturvedi, Prashant Khare, Vishwas Sharma and Arpit along with eight young volunteer colleagues laid the foundation of Divya Prem Sewa Mission for leprosy patients, in a hut which they bought only for five hundred rupees. Initially, by staying in the same hut, applying the ointment of leprosy patients, this work started.

In the past 22 years, this institution laid the foundation for the treatment of thousands of leprosy patients and they worked tirelessly for providing the bright future of their hundreds of children. As a result of this, today a hostel with a noticeable capacity of more than 300 students for healthy children of leprosy patients, be it Vande Mataram Kunj or Madhavrao Devle Shiksha Mandir established for their education, and surprisingly all this work is going on without government assistance. This is the result of hard work of  Karyakartas only that just Studying from here, a student like Himanshu today. Is pursuing MBBS from a renowned Medical College in Mauritius.

The story begins with Mr. Ashish Gautam, born on 22 October 1962 in this small town of Hamirpur district of Uttar Pradesh from Nevada. He became an RSS Pracharak after doing MA, LLB in Political Science from Allahabad University. After being a Pracharak for 8 years from 1988 to 1997, he set out in the Himalayas in search of God. At the same time, some of his young volunteer colleagues who had come to meet him in Gangotri, came to leave Haridwar, Ashish Gautam stayed in a Dharamshala in Chandi Ghat and it was from here that the direction of his life changed completely towards a new journey. He considered Nar Seva as Narayan Seva and saw God in these leprosy patients and dedicated his entire life to this task. Worst part was that, this was the period when people believed that leprosy spreads by touching. As a result of this, the society neither accepted these patients nor their children. Patients had no other choice beside handing over their lovely children to Christian missionaries, forcefully they were doing this and was saying that we had submitted. But the missionaries did not even take the responsibility of raising these children, this was the important reason behind the establishment of Vande Matram Kunj, which was initially established only with 15 children. In these 23 years, hundreds of children have been educated and cultured from here and have laid the foundation of their bright future. Convenor of DivyaPrem Seva Mission, Sanjay Chaturvedi says with a satisfying smile on his face that Manohar grew up here, today is in charge of computer section of the school. Here children are also encouraged to become good citizens with education and culture, because an educated and cultured citizen can help with a vision for the development of the country.

The Samidha Sewaarth Hospital, started for leprosy patients, now also provides free treatment to the general poor patients, where the well-known doctors of the city provide services. Not only this, the Divya Prem Mission, awarded with 23 awards including Mahatma Gandhi National Award, is being made self-supporting by providing employment training to leprosy women as well as women from other poor families. Ashish, who considers service to be his good fortune, says that our biggest success is that these children of leprosy patients have been accepted by the society. Result of Ashis’s and other volunteer’s hard work and determination is well known and visible now. Today’s scenario is that, in Vande Matram Kunj, people from the elite families of Haridwar celebrate the birthday of their children. So nothing left to say with us beside how a night stay can give light to journey of life and a vision of Nar Sewa, Narayan Sewa can change life of thousands with touch of love and positivity.

The Compiler

Contact : Sanjay Chaturvedi

Paritosh Bangwal  : 98370 88910