Mananeeya Nivedita Bhide interacts with invitees

Mananeeya Nivedita Bhide, Vice President of Vivekananda Kendra Kanyakumari, interacted with a select gathering of people from varied backgrounds at VKIC on March 14, 2017. She was introduced to the audience by Prof. Parimal Chandra Bhattacharjee, Director of Research Advisory Council. 

Prof. Bhattacharjee explained the purpose of the gathering, and after briefly mentioning about VKIC and its vision,  spoke about the tremendous scope of work that an organisation like VKIC can explore in the near future. He sought guidance of the assembled well-wishers of VKIC in framing the road map for the coming years. 

The programme was carried forward with a thematic presentation of VKIC by Dipankar Mahanta on the 20 years journey of VKIC. In his presentation, Sri  Mahanta referred to VKIC as a social enterprise and its founder Mananeeya Eknathji Ranade as a great social entrepreneur. 

After the presentation Prof. Kalyan Das, Honorary Associate Director of VKIC’s Research Advisory Council solicited views and suggestions from the audience to help formulate a roadmap for the future.

Some of the suggestions included: impact of digital India in cultural preservation, identification of vulnerable communities and how best to help their traditional culture, possible means to promote local cultural products. 

Summing up the discussion, Mananeeya Nivedita Bhide said that through VKIC’s role in engaging community members in its seminars and workshops the communities are benefited. When the community people are encouraged to speak about their traditions and customs, they are heard and appreciated, it builds confidence in them. It helps them realise that their traditional beliefs and practices are not outdated; but rather a matter of protection and preservation. Agreeing with what the noted economist S Gurumurthy refers to in his book 

Development through Culture, Mananeeya Nivedita ji concluded the speech with a remark that for real and sustainable economic development, the communities must be involved in the process. She also emphasised a core belief of VKIC, Culture Nurtures Unity.