About

 Rotary Club of Behala – a journey of 58 years

Formation

In the month of August 1963, the then District Governor Rtn Hemen Ganguly of RI district 325 appointed Past President Rtn Mihir Roy of RC Calcutta South West as his special representative for extension of Rotary club of Behala. Rtn Mihir Roy commenced survey of Behala area on November 1963 and thereafter the survey report was sent to DG.

In December,1963 President Rtn. Dr Ranjan Banerjee of RC Calcutta South West formed an extension committee with Rtn Mihir Roy as chairman and Rtn Ashoke Roy and Rtn H S Sinha as members to go into details for the formation of Rotary club of Behala.

RC Calcutta South West released the territory of the proposed Rotary Club of Behala on 13th February,1964. A month later DG Rtn Hemen Ganguly gave permission to organize the said club with the territorial limit of former South Suburban Municipality with a population of about 2 Lakhs.

On April 1,1964 the organizational meeting was held at the residence of Rtn. Sailendra Nath Roy, where the prospective members were explained the objects of Rotary, its obligations and privileges. In that meeting the office bearers were selected, constitution and by-laws were adopted.

The inaugural meeting of the provisional Rotary club of Behala was held on April 11, 1964. A total of 37 members were present and they were the initial members.

The Charter dated August 24,1964 was presented on Saturday September 26,1964 by the then district Governor Rtn C.R. Bose of RI District 325.

Rtn Sailendra Nath Roy was Charter President and the famous cricketer Rtn Premangshu Chatterjee was the Charter Secretary. Charise W Pettengill was the incumbent RI President with the  RI Theme  of ’Live Rotary’ .

Venue and frequency of the regular meetings

Initial meetings were held at the residence of Charter President Rtn Sailendra Nath Roy. Then it shifted to Vivekananda College, Behala. The venue was changed to New Alipore Association Hall where it continued to meet on every Thursday till June or July 1976, when Park Hotel became the location for some time before settling on Grand Hotel for meetings over evening tea.

Till now, Grand Hotel hosted our meetings over the longest period of time, but the club needed to venture for a new location. After few months of 1992 at Calcutta Management Association behind AC Market on Theatre Road, Auditorium of Birla Planetarium could be arranged. This was the regular venue till 2015, when the authorities decided to renovate the complex in a major way.

Malik Guest House on Harish Mukherjee Road became the new venue till the Covid epidemic forced the club to go online in 2020.

The club strictly follows the Club Constitution as decided by Rotary International from time to time. For many long years it was the evening of every Thursday till 2016 when, with this flexibility being allowed, the club decided to meet in the evening of 1^st, 3^rd, and 5^th (if any) Thursdays every month.

Club members contesting to become District Governor

PP Rtn Atin Mitter contested for the coveted post for the 1980-81 session, but could not muster 50% of polls. But in 1981-82 session it was our PP Rtn Shyamal Datta who became the District Governor.

Rotary Foundation’s Group Study Exchange (GSE) program and our club

Our club participated in this unique cultural and vocational exchange opportunity over many years. We hosted visiting teams from abroad regularly, the last opportunity being in 2006.

Similarly, Late PP Rtn Atin Mittir, Late PP Rtn Ajit Chatterjee and PP Rtn Pijush Ranjan Sengupta had been selected by respective DGs to lead the team, the last named having visited RID 6460 (Illinois, USA) in April – May 1992, with 5 youngsters.

Incumbent Club President Rtn Soummojit Mukherjee had been member of a District GSE team visiting Brazil in 2012.

Regular Club Bulletin

Initially it was simply “The Bulletin of the Rotary Club of Behala”. Subsequently it was named “Maitree” or friendship. It was traditionally a two-page printed sheet, with occasional special issues. Since the start of Covid pandemic, it has become an online issue of many more pages.

Club Mascot and Club Logo

In the initial period of the club, Peacock was selected as the mascot of the club. The club logo was designed by Rtn Avijit Dev in 2005, with some small modification by PP Rtn Kaushik Bhattacharyya in 2016.

The Club and Rotary Community Corps

Majority of projects undertaken by the club were conducted through RCCs.

The club had a number of RCCs in its journey.

1. RCC Rasapunja. It was a very old RCC with the club, where special projects included annual health check-up camps, weekly medical camp with a Homeopath doctor, a sewing training centre for ladies, and construction of a building for the RCC and the vocational training centre. As they became self-sufficient and with urbanisation of the locality, in 2006 the club decided to let them grow independently.
2. RCC Nawabad at Nalgora, South 24 Pgs. This was an area without electricity, connected to the motorable road by a narrow dirt track.  The RCC was established in 2006 and the club arranged solar lamps, solar torches for students, few van-rickshaws for vocation, a sewing training centre for ladies, and construction of a building for the primary school-cum-vocational training centre. In 2017 the elected members of the RCC wanted to pursue a course not commensurate with Rotary ideas, and the club withdrew its support.
3. RCC Unnayan at Tapuriaghata off EM Bypass was established in 2017. The club had some one-time projects, but no long-term project could be initiated. In 2019 the club decided to withdraw its support.
4. RCC Sri Ramkrishna Ashrama at Chandanpiri, South 24 pgs. Paperwork for this RCC started in 2018, and the Charter was received in 2019. A heavy duty RO water filter was installed at their premises housing a primary school and orphanage, and through them has been distributed more than 1,000 fruit tree saplings, annual stipend of Rs one lakh for 25 girl students (courtesy Gouri Gupta Trust), and there is the ongoing project of Water for Toilets with support from EIRWT, 35 units having already been completed.

Some services undertaken by the club

Vocational Service

1. Training of youth in own organisation by Rtn Susanta Kr Das and Rtn JV Rangarao
2. Vocational Awards to a couple of deserving personalities every year.
3. Career counselling for senior students of local schools, including a specially designed booklet for distribution.
4. A seminar at Rotary Sadan in 2007 discussing ‘Sea as a career.’
5. Sewing Training Centres at RCC at Rasapunja and Nalgora, and at a Ladies’ Cooperative of Self-help groups at Rasapunja.

Club Service

1. Organising District Conference

The club organised the District Conference in 1989, with our own PP Rtn Shyamal Datta at the helm as DG. The venue was Calcutta Blind School on Diamond Harbour Road, Behala and many club leaders of the time carried out specific responsibilities. Conference Chairman was Late PP Rtn Bhaskar Bhattacharjee, Secretary was PP Rtn Pijush Ranjan Sengupta, and PP Rtn Debabrata Joardar was Chair, House of Friendship.

2. Club Drama

The club organised two dramas as fund raising event. The first one was held at Rabindra Sadan to help Late PP Rtn Saroj Gupta establish his dream project of ‘Cancer Centre Welfare Home & Research Institute’ at Thakurpukur (now renamed as ‘Saroj Gupta Cancer Centre & Research Institute’), based on a story written by himself.

The next drama was ‘Military Sinduk’ performed at Sarat Sadan, Behala in 2006 to raise fund for construction of a building for Primary School-cum-Vocational training Centre at RCC Nawabad at Nalgora, 24 Pgs (S).

3. Club Picnic

With a very good bonhomie among members and their families, the club organised regular family picnic every year. The ongoing pandemic situation, however, has restricted this activity.

4. Club Excursions

Till date, the only international excursion by the club members was to Singapore and Bangkok. But tours have been organised to Hazaribagh, Puri, Bhitar Kanika, Shantiniketan,  Lataguri, and Jhargram with members and families enjoying the trips.

Community Service (Medical)

1. Eye Camp.

Prior to the May 2002 Government order banning cataract surgery outside well organised hospitals, the club held cataract surgery camps at the St Joseph School building (within Oxford Mission campus in Behala) in the week of X-mas every year where around 50 patients were operated upon on a Sunday, stayed there for a week, and released after examination by the surgeon next Sunday. Eminent ophthalmologists like Dr Anutosh Dutta or Dr I S Roy voluntarily performed the surgeries.

Since 2002, the club has been joining hands with local social clubs or NGOs of Behala to organise cataract screening camps, the selected patients being referred to Rotary Eye Hospital at Budge Budge for the purpose. The spectacles for the patients are also provided by the club.

2. School Health Programme

The club visited the local schools and arranged for health check-up of the young patients, including eye sight and dental check-up.

3. Health Check-up Camps

Health check-up camps at the RCC or at other sites as per local requirement has been a regular programme since long. A spectrum of consultants in various streams voluntarily join our effort.

4. Know Your Number Camps

These are specialised health check-up camps, conceived by RI in 2020, where Blood Sugar, Blood Pressure and BMI (calculated from height and weight) are checked and the patients are counselled. The club organised and took part in two of them.

5. Child Heart Surgery

Prior to initiation of Sishu Sathi scheme by Government of West Bengal, having cardiac surgery for the kids was a dream to the common people. Rotary came up with the project for Child Heart Surgery, and our club has sponsored cardiac surgery for 11 children over the years.

6. Sanitary Napkin Vending machine

Personal hygiene of ladies is of paramount importance as it has a direct relation to the dreaded cervical cancer. Our club has installed few Sanitary Napkin Vending machines at girls’ schools and a cooperative of Self-Help groups.

7. Covid Care Centre

As the second wave of Covid 19 ravaged the city, hospital beds or oxygen cylinders became scarce. Atma Foundation joined hands with authorities of Don Bosco School at Park Circus to run a Covid Care Centre. Our club, the generous members and their families contributed more than five lakh  rupees to run the centre.

Community Service (Non-Medical)

1. Water and Sanitation

Water purifiers, including heavy duty RO model, have been installed at various RCCs and different schools over the years.

Water for Toilet is an ongoing flagship project undertaken with matching  grant from Eastern India Rotary Welfare Trust.

2. Environment

Plantation of fruit bearing trees, mainly through RCCs, is a regular project. In recent years the club has been sponsoring plantation of more than one thousand trees annually.

3. Literacy

Ours is one of the clubs with a Standing Committee on Literacy.

1. Janakalyan Vidyapith Primary School and Barisha Bastuhara Free Primary School were two Primary Schools of Behala adopted for 2006-07, with the club sponsoring books, teaching materials, school uniform, water filters and mid-day meal to all the students daily throughout the year.
2. The club had a long association with St Joseph Primary School of Behala. The club donated infrastructure like desk, benches, blackboards, library with books and few computers loaded with special software for teaching the kids. The Club also renovated the building with construction of modern toilets. Bulk of the work there was through CSR courtesy PP Rtn Deepnath Roy Chowdhury.
3. In 2019 the club took up projects at Baidyapara High School, Behala. It was part of the District Pilot Project related to e-learning, and is continuing with our support. Separate modern toilets for girls and boys were constructed by the Club in 2020.
4. A computer centre, complete with 5 computers with special teaching software and other accessories has been commissioned at Free To Be Kids Adult Education Centre, Thakurpukur.

4. Care of Senior Citizens

1. ‘Shanti Niwas’ and ‘Apon Ghar’ are two old-age homes of Behala where the club organised many projects over the years including medical check-up, distribution of new garments during Puja festivals and organising fireworks on Kalipuja nights.
2. ‘Puja Parikrama’ had been a regular programme with Rotaractors joining up as volunteers. The inmates of these two old-age homes, along with mentally challenged students of the organisation ‘Ment-Aid’ were ushered through many Puja pandals of the city, and lunch were arranged for them.

      5. Disaster Management

The Club has a RCC at Chandanpiri of Sundarbans. Unfortunately, it is one of the areas that has to withstand fury of cyclones recurrently. There were the cyclones Fani and Bulbul in 2019, followed by Amphan in 2000 and Yaas in 2021.

The club has been one of the first to reach the affected region quickly with dry food, shelter and clothes, followed by repeated visits with lime, bleaching powder and other essentials.

It has received special recognition in this field for consecutive two years.

International Service

1. Global Grands

The club conducted two projects with International Matching Grants – precursor of today’s Global Grant .

1. Gift of a Braille Computer to Calcutta Blind School, Behala
2. Gift of an ambulance-cum-medical van to Balananda Hospital, Behala. In this project our partner was Top of the Lake Rotary Club of Mooresville, North Carolina (RID 7680).

2. Polio Eradication

In the initial period, the club conducted Polio vaccination camps, including campaigning and delivery of oral Polio drops, at times transporting the chilled vaccine boxes from distribution centre. Later, as the Government and Municipal Corporation took charge of everything, we were allotted a big booth at Anjuman High School on Biren Roy Road West where we assembled on Polio Days to encourage the youngsters and the parents.

Currently the club routinely takes part in spreading awareness in six wards of Behala and encouraging the health workers involved.

Youth Service

1. Youth festival

The club organised two Youth Festivals at the grounds of Calcutta Blind School, Behala in 1984 and 1985. These were huge affairs, and had tremendous impact among the youngsters.

     2. Rotaract Club

      Rotaract Club of Behala was sponsored by the Club on 19^th March 1993 and

      had its own ups and downs. It was adjudged the Best Rotaract Club of the

     District in 2008-09, 2010-11, and 2011-12. Rtr Shuvratav Mitra went on to

     become  the DRR of RID 3291 for the 2013-14 session.

     3. Interact Club

    The Club has sponsored two interact clubs in DAV public School and Bridge   

    International School.