Atmano Mokshartam Jagat Hitayacha(for the salvation of our individual self and for the well-being of all on earth) is a sloka of the Rig Vedaand the twin ideal of Tyaga and Seva (Renunciation and Service) are the very basis of the foundation of the organisation. In other words the philosophy is to work insilence let the success makes the noise.The work of the organisation is in itself is a certificate to organisation, which believes in less publicity and more service and more work, which it has been following since its inception in the year 1898, when the organisation is founded by Swami Vivekananda, the cyclonic monk of India.

Ramakrishna Mission and Math as a whole is doing tremendous service related works worldwide in the field of Education, Health Care, Skill development, Agriculture etc, but here we will cite the example of a centre, which has brought cyclonic changes in the social mindset and has been instrumental in the upliftment of the society, which for years may not have been possible for any other organisation. The then government too was aware of its limitation have entrusted the responsibility to Ramakrishna Mission.

It all began with a thought about NEFA (North Eastern Frontier Agency) present Arunachal Pradesh, that crossed the mind of a venerable and dignified lady, who was also a visionary and full of sympathy for the poor. Her name was Srimati Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India.

‘Since my first visit to NEFA (present Arunachal) and Nagaland,’ she wrote in her letter dated 21 July 1965 to a senior monk of the Ramakrishna Mission, ‘I have felt the need for some missionary work to be done there by non-interested persons.’ Her next sentence proved her tremendous faith in Ramakrishna Mission. ‘In this context the Ramakrishna Mission naturally came to my mind.’

Not only Smt. Indira Gandhi but also Shri Vishnu Sahay, the then Governor of Assam, was very interested to invite Ramakrishna Mission to the North-East, particularly to NEFA, for the development of tribal people through educational and medical services.

Indira Gandhi writes in her aforesaid letter, ‘A few days ago, I received a letter from the Governor of Assam, Shri Vishnu Sahay. He wondered if it would be possible for them (the monks of Ramakrishna Mission) to go to NEFA to start a Mission there doing educational and medical work”

Ramakrishna Mission commanded great respect and was welcomed since its mission was neither cultural invasion nor religious conversion, but an honest attempt to introduce some dynamic man-making activities. This was the initial ideation of Ramakrishna Mission, Narottamnagar in Tirap district of Arunachal Pradesh.

Tirap Frontier Division, now known as Tirap district, is the southernmost district of Arunachal Pradesh. The Patkai mountain range, in the northeast frontier of India, bordering Myanmar, is spread over the Tirap and Changlang districts of Arunachal Pradesh.

The Tirap district comprises 2362 sq. km. area, and shares its border with Mynamar in the south, Nagaland in the west, Assam in the north and Changlang district in the east. Altitudes range from 150 to 1500 metres approximately.

There are quite a good number of spring-heads in the Tirap district which are of great help to the people as being sources of salt water. The local people collect the spring water and manufacture salt out of that. Such salt springs are very common in the Nocte area and the local people use the salt not only for their own consumption but get many things of daily necessity in exchange for this commodity. Before the advent of British administration, salt was an important item of trade with them and for this, people from the plains used to visit their villages with various trade goods to be offered in exchange of salt. Thus so far as trade was concerned they were in an advantageous position because of the availability of salt in their locality which gave them an unique position to dictate terms to others.

The economic development of the area got more boosting with the advent of Ramakrishna Mission which gave them a new dimention by giving rational direction to the people for their own development by producing rational and educated citizens from its School.

Ramakrishna Mission School, Narottam Nagar, began with 25 girls and 83 boys. The girls were shifted to Khonsa when the Ramakrishna Sarada Mission School came up in 1975. At that time the literacy rate of Arunachal Pradesh was 11.27% (1971 census).

The foundation stone of the present Ramakrishna Mission school building was laid by Shri V. V. Giri, the then President of India, on 21 April 1974. It was later inaugurated by Shri Morarji Desai, the Prime Minister of India, on 4 November 1978.

The Higher Secondary School was inaugurated on 30 March 1986 by Srimat Swami Gambhiranandaji Maharaj, the 11th president of Ramakrishna Math & Mission. In course of time new buildings came up as work expanded.

This is a fully a residential school, preparing boys for the All India Secondary Examination and Senior Secondary School Examination of the Central Board of Secondary Education, New Delhi. The medium of instruction is English. Hindi too is taught right from Class – Prep. Sanskrit is the third language. The School has experienced and qualified staffs, and it is supervised by monks of the Ramakrishna order.

Student -Teacher ratio 30:1.

2. Supervised studies.

3. Special Coaching for weak students.

4. Four-quarterly examinations.

5. Six Full fledged laboratories: practicals from class IX onwards.

6. Three fully equipped computer laboratories for Primary, Secondary, & Higher Secondary Sections.

Library

7. Four separate libraries & reading rooms in Primary, Secondary Section, Higher Secondary Sections & General having 13,000 books, 71 journals, and 5 Newspapers.

8. Socially Useful Productive Work (SUPW) under which the students learn activities supplementary to education, such as Tailoring, Painting, Drawing, Cane work, Music, Electronics, Typewriting etc. 

9. Total No. of students in the school: 772.

10. Total No. of students in Hostel: 598.

Academic Achievements:

Our academic performance is uniformly excellent. This year we registered 100% pass results in class X & class XII CBSE examinations. In class X, six students got 9.6 out of 10 CGPA and in class XII Mst. Tai Gungtey was the highest scorer with 95.20%.

In JEE (Mains) total 25 students appeared and most of them got selected for further counseling through Arunachal Pradesh State merit list, 13 out of 25 students got selected to appear in JEE (Advanced). In APJEE (Med.) two of our students secured 6^th& 9^th position in the state merit list.

Sports and Games Achievements

There are six playgrounds and a stadium. Students enjoy playing games like Football, Volleyball, Basketball & Cricket etc.; Carom and Table Tennis are played as indoor games.

Inter block/house tournaments were held among the students in various games. In Higher Secondary section, Acharya Ramanuja block was the winner in football volleyball and basketball and Acharya Vivekananda block in cricket. In Secondary section, Chatrapati Shivaji house was the winner in football, Rana Pratap house in volleyball, basketball and cricket.

41^st Annual Athletic meet was held on 18^th & 19^th December 2015. Sri Jasmeet Singh, IPS, Superintendent of Police, Tirap, Arunachal Pradesh inaugurate the meet and addressed the students. Mst. Ranlit Nokbi of class VI,  Mst. Donlang Tangdong of class IX, Mst. Mowang Ngowaof class XII were judged champions in their respective groups.

Other Achievements

To imbibe the spirit of competition our students are encouraged to participate in various contests.

In the Mathematics Olympiad 3 students got 100 out of 100 and awarded Merit certificate and Shield; 16 students were awarded Gold Medals.

Festivals and Celebrations

The Annual Prize Giving Ceremony was held on 30^th January, 2015. The function started at 10.00 a.m. amidst the blowing of conch & bugle, sound of trumpets & flutes and cheering of students. His Excellency  Lt. General (Retd.) Nirbhay Sharma, the Honorable Governor of Arunachal Pradesh, Revered Swami Bodhasaranandaji Maharaj, Assistant Secretary, Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission, Belur Math, distributed the prizes, scholarships, awards and addressed the gathering. On this occasion, School Magazine Narottam was released. Swami Gitatmananda, Secretary welcomed the gathering, Swami Supradiptananda, Vice-Principal, read out the Report of Activities and Swami Nityapurnananda, Principal, proposed vote of thanks.

The valedictory Functionfor the outgoing students of Class – X and XII was held on Tuesday, 1^st February, 2015 at 2.00 p.m. in the Vivekananda Auditorium. All were presented with books and photograph of Swamiji, School Magazine Narottam and one Video C.D. containing School activities as a token of love. All the outgoing boys took blessings from the Swamijis and teachers.

A programme to welcome the freshers (Navin Varan) was held on 21^st June 2015. Special puja of Bhagawan Sri Ramakrishna was performed to evoke the blessings of the Holy Trio for the overall betterment of the new comers.  The new students took vows (Vidyarthi vrata) by offering vilwa leaves in the sacred fire (Homa). They introduced themselves in a meeting held at Thakur Ghar. The senior students welcomedthe freshers with bouquet and locket of Thakur & Holy Mother. Cooked prasad was served to all the students, teachers, GDA staff with their family members and guests.

In the evening at Vivekananda Auditorium a colourful cultural programme was organized. Many of the freshers presented various cultural programmes. Swami Nityapurnananda, Principal welcomed the students and others present. Swami Gitatmananda, Secretary addressed the gathering. The programme ended with a vote of thanks by Br. Parthiban, Vice-Principal.National Youth day was observed on 12^th January 2015.

National festivals like Independence day, Republic day, Teachers’ day and birthdays of Sri Ramakrishna, Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi and Swami Vivekananda; Krishna Janmastami, Shivaratri, Holi, Kali Puja, Saraswati Puja, Christmas Eve etc. were observed with due solemnity and joy.

World Environment Day was observed on 5th June 2015 through Vanamahostsava with the help of Forest Department by planting 100 saplings of various types. Before plantation, a meeting was organized where Swami Gitatmananda, Secretary welcomed the gathering and Mr. R Socia, Forest  Range Officer spoke on the importance of the day.

Scholarship

Like previous years, this year also 29 students got scholarship from Govt. of Arunachal Pradesh, Ramakrishna Mission, Belur Math, Howrah and Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Kolkata.

Special Facilities for Tirap District

During the year 2014-15, 158 students from Tirap received FREE education. An approximate amount of  Rs.1,52,32,792/- had been spent for the maintenance of these students.

Medical Aid

All the students and staff members are provided with medical aid under a qualified doctor assisted by pharmacist and attendant. The indoor hospital Swasti has 30 beds with separate arrangements for isolation cases. X-Ray and Pathological tests are done. Total 155 indoor cases and 9,046 outdoor cases were treated during the year.

The free mobile medical unit which serves the nearby villages thrice a week served 3045 patients during the year. Besides, free medical check-up and treatment camps for the benefit of the local populace were held.

On 14^th February, 2015 Bone Mineral Densitometry Test was organized in our Ashrama campus in collaboration with Pharmed Limited, Bangalore. A total no of 145 patients were screened and supplied with free medicines. On 9^th May, 2015 a Free medical checkup and treatment camp was held with the help of Indian Oil Corporation Ltd., Digboi at Deomali and in our Hospital ‘Swasti’. Dr. (Mrs) Anjana Dutta Kardom, Child Specialist, Dr. Alok Das Gupta, General Medicine, Dr. P C Goswami, Gyneocologist, Dr. D. Upadhaya, General Physician and Dr. B K Das, General Physician conducted the camp. Total 268 patients were treated and given free medicines. On 20^th September, 2015 a Free Eye Checkup and Treatment Camp was held with the help of Lions Club of Dibrugarh. Dr. Himanshu Das, Dr. Supanth Bhattacharjee, Dr. Sobhana Phukan, Dr. Santana Medhi,  and Dr. Sharad Mishra conducted the camp. Total 222 eye patients were treated and given free medicines. Besides, Special Free Medical Camp was organized on Orthopedic and Medicine with the help of Dr. Saikat Patra, General Physician, Dr. Shantanu Lahakar (Orthopedic), Dr. Subhodip Pal (Dentist) and Dr. Girindra Nath Gogoi (Medicine). Total 144 patients were treated and given free medicines.

Vocational Training Centre

Under vocational training fourteen tribal girls received training in weaving, knitting and tailoring. The training is free of any charges. The trainees are provided with free boarding and lodging.

Dairy and Poultry

The Dairy and Poultry unit supplies fresh milk, eggs and chicken to the kitchen for the benefit of resident students. During the year under report 29,961 ltr Milk, 1,23,745 nos. Egg and 8196 kg Broiler were produced.

Agriculture

Under Land Utilization Unit varieties of vegetables are produced in our vegetable garden throughout the year. The total production during the year is 12,991 Kg. There is a regular supply of fresh vegetables to our kitchen and staff members. Besides, 9,928 kg of tea leaf and 3,916 kg of coffee seeds were produced during the year.

There medicinal plant parks covering a total area of about 10,000 sq mtr. has Kalmegh, Darchini, Turmeric, Betel leaf, Sarpagandha, Ghritakumari, Amla, Pipli, Neem, Rudraksha, Vasaka, Blackpaper, Bel, Chakunda, Satomuli, Nagdona, Gandal, Nishinda, Gulancha, Mankachu, Lajjabati, Tulsi, Bahera, Nayantara, Patharkunchi, Shotomuli, Haritaki, Kanch colla, Singapuri etc.

In the fishery seven ponds are maintained to give regular supply of fish to the kitchen. Total production during the year is 445 kg.

A village School for Children (Maa Sarada Kindergarten)

An English medium primary school (from Standard LKG to V) to provided education to the children of nearby areas had 167 students (both boys and girls) on its roll. Besides academic studies the children were trained in value education, music and dance, yoga, health and hygiene, computer etc.

Gadhadhar Abhyudaya Prakalpa with the financial assistance of Jamsetji Tata Trust (JTT) through our Headquarters is being implemented for the Physical, Mental and Intellectual Development of children.

Relief and Pecuniary Help

School Uniform, Woolen Sweater, Vest, School Bag, Text Books, Exercise Khata, Pen, Pencil, Eraser, Sharpener, Tooth paste, Bath Soap, Washing Soap, Hair Oil, Shampoo etc. were distributed among 240 poor and needy students of nearby villages.Under winter relief programme 650 Blankets were distributed among the poor and needy.

Ramakrishna Mission School Narottamnagar is just one example of the mountaneous effort that Ramakrishna Mission as an organisation has undertaken. Many more centres are doing the man making and nation building task in its own way.

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