Upgraded 12 October 2026 at 21:19 IST
Dharampur beings in among South Gujarat’s poorest tribal belts. For years, a major disease, a great school or a college seat implied a long journey out of the area.
Mumbai: About 210 km north of Mumbai, in a tribal town most city occupants have actually never ever become aware of, clients now take a trip in for innovative surgical treatment, rural kids go to schools with metro-level centers, and a university is increasing that its contractors call “the Harvard of rural India”
For 5 years, Sahil Shah from Mumbai looked for a remedy. His legs had actually grown stiff and numb, he might no longer stand or stroll appropriately, and he had actually been required to leave of school after Class 8. He attempted treatment after treatment in among India’s best-equipped cities. Absolutely nothing worked.
In the end, assistance came not from a big-city healthcare facility however from a town in South Gujarat. At an orthopaedic camp at Shrimad Rajchandra Hospital and Research Centre in Dharampur, physicians identified a serious inflammatory joint condition and carried out complicated restorative surgical treatment to correct his legs. After physiotherapy and rehab, the 24-year-old strolled individually once again.
It is a turnaround of the normal story, in which villagers take a trip to the city for excellent care. In Dharampur, in Gujarat’s Valsad district, the circulation has actually begun to run the other method.
A various standard
Dharampur beings in among South Gujarat’s poorest tribal belts. For years, a severe health problem, an excellent school or a college seat implied a long journey out of the area.
Today, the town is home to a cluster of organizations developed by Shrimad Rajchandra Mission Dharampur (SRMD), the spiritual and humanitarian organisation established by Pujya Gurudevshri Rakeshji. What sets them apart is not simply their number however the requirement they hold themselves to.
Gurudevshri’s quick, as the Mission informs it, was easy: construct a healthcare facility for the underserved rural population where you would wish to opt for treatment yourself. That yardstick, care sufficient for individuals who might pay for anything, now goes through practically whatever in the town.
Health care you would anticipate in a city
Shrimad Rajchandra Hospital is a 250-bed multi-speciality charitable healthcare facility serving more than 500 towns, at totally free or extremely subsidised rates. According to the Mission, it is the only healthcare facility in the location carrying out paediatric open-heart surgical treatments. Its neonatal extensive care system has actually dealt with more than 8,000 babies, and its early intervention centre for babies has actually dealt with over 1.1 million kids. This year it collaborated the area’s very first organ contribution, sending out a donor’s heart to Ahmedabad through a green passage.
The calibre of care has actually drawn worldwide attention. The Mission states that the healthcare facility is among 6 internationally supported websites by Stanford University’s scholarship program, allowing its trainees to train at the Hospital.
Organizations such as Yale, Berkeley and NYU have actually followed. Going to experts from the United States have actually carried out intricate surgical treatments here, consisting of a seven-hour operation to release a lady’s arm, merged to her body by burns for 14 years.
More is on the method. The Mission has actually revealed the Shrimad Rajchandra Sarvamangal Cancer Hospital in Dharampur, created to serve more than 11 lakh tribal locals and offer 10,000 chemotherapy sessions and 1,000 surgical treatments a year. It will use Da Vinci robotic surgical treatment, the sort of innovation typically discovered just in the biggest city healthcare facilities. A brand-new kidney and eye medical facility brings dialysis, kidney transplants and advanced eye care to the very same area.
Class with city aspirations
Education follows the exact same reasoning. Shrimad Rajchandra Vidyavihar runs main and secondary education for tribal kids from the deep interiors, and Shrimad Rajchandra Gurukul takes them through secondary and greater secondary. A brand-new Gurukul school for 700 kids is under method, together with a hostel for more than 200 trainees.
Above them sits Shrimad Rajchandra Vidyapeeth, a modern-day science college. When it opened, it was the very first science college throughout 238 towns. For a young adult from a farming household, a science degree no longer implies leaving home.
Gurudevshri has framed the aspiration behind this in one line: if a kid in Silicon Valley can imagine altering the world, why not a kid in Dharampur?
The university on the hill
That concern is now taking physical shape. Shrimad Rajchandra Sarvamangal University is increasing on a 27-acre school with 4.5 lakh square feet of built-up area, a library of more than 50,000 books and a sports complex. Its structure stone was laid in February 2025.
The Mission explains its vision in vibrant terms: restoring the magnificence of ancient Nalanda and constructing the Harvard of rural India. It is implied to reach trainees from more than 400 towns, much of them the very first in their households to go to college.
Abilities and tasks, near to home
A degree implies little bit without an income, so the town likewise purchases abilities. The Shrimad Rajchandra Skill Development Centre provides tribal youth vocational and soft-skills training at no charge.
For ladies, the Shrimad Rajchandra Sarvamangal Centre of Excellence for Women inhabits an 11-acre school with more than 2 lakh square feet of area. It has modern-day assembly line, a vertical storage facility, digital training spaces and a crèche for working moms. The items made there under the Raj Uphaar brand name, from treats to scents to handmade candle lights, now reach more than 750 shops and 26 nations. According to the Mission, some are even picked as business presents by leading Indian service homes.
Even the animals get metro-grade care
Possibly the most unexpected example is what is being developed for animals. Shrimad Rajchandra Jivamaitridham is a 44-acre animal care school efficient in taking care of more than 5,000 animals at a time.
Its brand-new multi-speciality animal health center will provide angioplasty, dialysis, knee replacements, cancer surgical treatments and prosthetic limbs, with every department you would discover in a leading human medical facility. It will likewise house the very first animal blood bank in India’s economic sector. That is a major endeavor when you think about that pets alone have 13 blood types. An Institute of Veterinary Sciences is prepared along with it, to train the veterinarians that rural India severely requires.
The concept behind it
None of this occurred over night. Gurudevshri, a viewpoint scholar from Mumbai, established the Mission in 1994 and developed its ashram at Dharampur in 2001. Over the next 2 and a half years, the organizations grew around it, directed by the Mission’s concept of understanding one’s real self and serving others selflessly.
The Mission states its technique is rooted in self-respect instead of charity: seeing the individual before the issue, and structure paths instead of reliance. That approach discusses the persistence on quality. A town, in this view, should have the very same requirement of care and education as a city.
For Sahil Shah, that basic turned 5 years of frustration into the easy act of strolling on his own. For countless households around Dharampur, it suggests the very best care no longer needs a long journey. Sometimes, it implies individuals from the city are now the ones making the journey.
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