Cash-strapped Anand Niketan seeks private bidders to rebuild, run institution

The charitable trust -- Maharogi Sewa Samiti (MSS) -- that runs the institute requires ₹100 crore to ₹125 crore to rebuild the severely dilapidated structure

NAGPUR: The peerless Anand Niketan Arts, Science and Commerce College in Warora, Chandrapur—a living testament to the legendary Baba Amte’s visionary social movement—is fighting for survival. Starved of resources to repair its decaying infrastructure, the management has decided to hand over this 62-year-old sanctuary of learning to private administrators so that it may continue to serve underprivileged students.

Cash-strapped Anand Niketan seeks private bidders to rebuild, run institution

The charitable trust -- Maharogi Sewa Samiti (MSS) -- that runs the institute requires ₹100 crore to ₹125 crore to rebuild the severely dilapidated structure. As shelling out the astronomical sum is far beyond the trust’s financial capacity, it issued an Expression of Interest on September 4, searching for a financially capable organization to rebuild and manage the institution smoothly.

Kaustubh Amte, 46, Baba Amte’s grandson and one of the trustees of the Samati, told HT that a structural engineer hired in 2008 to inspect the campus—which evidently was on the precipice of physical ruin—issued a strong warning: the structural integrity of the building was compromised beyond repair, and the campus risked catastrophic collapse at any moment. Exacerbating this danger, constant heavy blasting from the nearby coal mines of the Western Coalfields Limited shakes the fragile, aging foundations daily.

The college is steeped in extraordinary history. In 1949, Baba Amte and his wife Sadhanatai founded Maharogi Sewa Samiti as an asylum at Warora for discarded, outcast leprosy patients. They transformed the barren earth into Anandwan—a self-sustaining oasis restoring medical care, economic self-reliance and vital human dignity to the deeply marginalized.

Considering higher education as the only way to bring this long-neglected community on par with the educated, Amte envisioned the college in 1962, opening its doors in 1964. Today, this Magsaysay Award-winner’s dream nurtures nearly 3,000 students across various faculties, supported by over 100 dedicated teaching and non-teaching staff, elevating countless underprivileged youth to prestigious positions across the globe.

The college functions in two shifts from a single-storeyed building, which has 20 classrooms. The morning shift accommodates undergraduate and postgraduate students from the Arts, Science, and Commerce faculties, while junior college students attend classes in the afternoon shift. In many of its rooms, over 80 students are accommodated at a time, resulting in considerable pressure on the available classroom space.

The trust’s efforts to garner funds from several corporate houses through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) also remained futile. “In Anandwan, providing care, dignity and sustenance to leprosy patients, individuals with disabilities, the destitute, and the elderly consumes nearly ₹30 crore annually—funded entirely through public charity and small cottage industries within the ashram,” Kaustubh explained. “Raising over ₹100 crore to rebuild a college campus is simply beyond our reach.”

As the college operates as an aided institution, it cannot simply close its gates on the thousands of students who rely on it. Left with no alternative, the Samiti made the move last week. Drawing a parallel, Kaustubh cited the recent transfer of Nagpur’s Meghe Group of Education Institute’s medical and dental hospitals to the Adani Group under similar cost pressures, reassuring that formal permissions will be sought from the Charity Commissioner, the affiliated university, and governmental bodies once a suitable proposal is selected.

Crucially, the Amte family clarified that this move is strictly isolated and not intended to set a precedent for the trust’s other initiatives. “We are not transferring anything else to anyone,” Kaustubh emphasized. “This decision applies solely to the Anand Niketan Arts, Science and Commerce College. Our Agriculture College, schools, and Anandwan’s core social projects remain entirely untouched.”

Principal Dr Mrunal Kale affirmed that while invitations for interested partners have been floated, no final decision of transfer has been made. For now, Anandwan’s crown jewel of education stands at a historic crossroads, waiting for a saviour to rebuild its walls while honouring its legacy.

EOM

About Anand Niketan

Baba Amte and his wife Sadhanatai founded Anand Niketan in 1962, which opened its doors to the marginalised in 1964. Nearly 3000 students study across faculties – Arts, Science and Commerce -- supported by over 100 teaching and non-teaching staff.

The college has 20 classrooms, where undergrads and postgrads study in shifts. Some classrooms are known to accommodate over 80 students at a time.