The Gujarat Sainik School, one of 21 Sainik Schools recognised by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) on Saturday throughout the nation, will be led by Muktanandji Bapu, the working president of the Bharat Sadhu Samaj and founder of the Brahmachari Shri Bhagvantinandji Education Trust.
“We received an e-mail confirmation from the Ministry of Defence late last night. A 10,000 square-metre school building is ready, and will accommodate 50 students of Class VI in the first phase,” said Hiren Vyas, academic advisor of Brahmachari Shri Bhagvantinandji Education Trust and director, Sainik School Gujarat.
The trust, founded by 63-year-old Bapu in 1989, runs 22 different institutes associated with philanthropic activities in sectors like education, health, agriculture and rural development; across Junagadh, Kutch and Amreli districts in Gujarat.
Bapu, who has been the working president of the Bharat Sadhu Samaj since 2019, was appointed to Sangathan Matri-Akhada Parishad to manage the organisation of the Kumbh Mela 2021.
On its main campus in Chaparda-Brahmanand Dham spread over 25 acres, the trust runs a co-education, residential and day school, a 200-bed free hospital, a naturopathy centre, a school for visually impaired children, an old-age home and an agriculture development research centre.
Over the last eight years, the trust has also adopted 45 government primary schools in Junagadh as part of the state education department’s programme to improve the quality of education in government schools. The organisation also conducts nine schools in wooded regions inside the Gir National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary, known as ‘nesses,’ and in pastoral community settlements, known as ‘maldharis.’
