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Kerala varsity to celebrate Gandhi Jayanti

By Our Staff Reporter

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM Sept. 13. The Centre for Gandhian Studies under the University of Kerala will organise week-long programmes from October 2 to 8 to celebrate Gandhi Jayanti.

On the occasion, two major initiatives taken by the Centre _ the Gandhi Darshan programme being implemented in schools and the village-level Swadeshi Rural Development Activities _ are being promoted as the most successful of programmes that have put Gandhiji's philosophies and thoughts into action.

The Gandhi Darshan programme being implemented by the Gandhi Darshan Samithy is a character orientation programme for school children. The programme, with its concentration on inculcating values in children, has succeeded in creating a major transformation in students. This has even resulted in a more peaceful and calm atmosphere in schools where the programme has been implemented, the Centre has claimed.

Under the programme, schools are being encouraged to be a motivating agent in bringing about societal change, by taking up programmes like manufacture of `Swadeshi' products. School students are imparted training in the manufacture of products like chalk, notebooks, umbrellas, candles, toilet soaps as lessons on self-sufficiency.

Swadeshi activities are aimed at the production and distribution of household utility items like soaps and other food products so as to sustain rural markets. Swadeshi products are also being encouraged as an anti-globalisation response.

About 11 varieties of toilet soaps, shampoos, washing powders, detergents, cleaning liquids and several varieties of rural food products like pickles, jams and squashes are being produced and distributed by the Swadeshi Rural Development Centres situated in 376 panchayats.

Thousands have undergone training in the manufacture of these items at these centres and have managed to make this a source of livelihood, the Centre for Gandhian Studies claims.

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