India: RSS welfare projects in UP with 2017 assembly elections in view

The India Today

Mail Today

RSS' welfare projects helping BJP ahead of 2017 Uttar Pradesh elections
As the 2017 elections are being billed as a direct clash between the BJP and the Dalit-leadership of the Bahujan Samaj Party, the increase in the number of such RSS projects in UP in the past couple of years could upset the hitherto established political equations.

Siddhartha Rai | Posted by Dianne Nongrum
New Delhi, May 22, 2016 | UPDATED 02:26 IST


Briefcase
1 RSS' welfare projects helped BJP win in Assam
2 SC/ST communities in Uttar Pradesh next target of RSS
3 2017 UP elections billed as clash between BJP and BSP

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) helped the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) hit a home run in the Assam Assembly polls, breaking the Congress' stranglehold. The flag bearer of Hindutva hopes to repeat the performance in the crucial Uttar Pradesh elections in 2017 too.

Just as in Assam where the RSS succeeded in weaning away from the Congress its traditional vote banks belonging to the SC/ST communities that counted for quite a major proportion of the population (33 per cent OBCs and 30 per cent SCs and STs) through its welfare projects, the organisation is making similar inroads in these electorally dominant sections in Uttar Pradesh too.

RSS could pave way for BJP in UP

As the 2017 elections are being billed as a direct clash between the BJP and the Dalit-leadership of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), the increase in the number of such RSS projects in UP in the past couple of years could upset the hitherto established political equations.

The Dalit and OBC communities are the deciding factors in the state's politics: Dalits account for over 20 per cent and OBCs for close to 50 per cent of UP's population.

While the number of its local organising units, shakhas, have consistently increased in the state over the past three years, the number of its sevakaryas or welfare projects among Dalits and backwards communities has been on the rise too. The RSS calls their ghettos as 'seva bastis'.

"We don't believe in any discrimination based on caste. So far as social organisational activities are concerned we plan events where people from all castes can come and co-mingle," said Kripashankar, UP's Kshetra Prachar Pramukh for RSS.

Talking about such welfare activities, he added, "One such activity is to make people from higher castes bring home-cooked food to seva bastis where Dalit families also bring food items and they share their food together. Another ploy to strengthen the society is to campaign for prohibition against liquor and other intoxicants."

Welfare projects play big role

According to claims from various RSS functionaries, the number of welfare projects, which are divided under different categories such as education, health, social organisation, self-reliance etc, have been on the rise since 2013.

In the field of education, the number of such welfare programmes has gone up from 67,710 in 2013-14 to 78,627 in 2014-15. The organisation runs schools for the underprivileged where its volunteers teach.

In the field of providing healthcare to communities in the 'seva bastis', the RSS has been running such activities as holding free check-up camps and dispensaries.

It also runs several awareness campaigns in these places. The number of health projects, claims RSS, has gone up from 19,039 in 2013-14 to 19,591 in 2014-15.

Consequently, claimed the RSS, the number of its projects running for imparting skills for self-reliance, 'svavalambi sevakaryas', has also been on the rise in the above mentioned period.

From 19,608 in 2013-14, the number of such projects went up to 22,450 in 2014-15.