SANDHI NIKETAN



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      Over the years, Anandwan has grown into a veritable industrial estate, where the rehabilitated inmates together produce everything ranging from cloth, mattresses, carpets, readymade garments, leather products, metal furniture including iron cots, desks and benches, tricycles, metal storage bins, water coolers, desert coolers and air conditioners.

      The remarkable thing about these industrial units is that they are unlike any factory to be found in society today. These are no ordinary workers. They are neither labourers who require supervision and monitoring to ensure efficient production; nor are they self-employed, self-exploiting, small-scale producers. These are people working with a motivation, born out of a sense of belonging to a shared community, which is very much their own, for which they are collectively responsible.

      It is this feeling that engendersa deep sense of self respect and dignity amongst the citizens of Anandwan. There is little charity here, there is immense labour of love.

"Work builds, charity destroys"
-- Baba Amte

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