Pabitra Kumar Sen

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Professor Pabitra Kumar Sen (born 1906, Comilla, Bangladesh) was the Khaira Professor of Calcutta University, and founder of the College of Agriculture at Calcutta University in the 1950's. Professor Sen obtained his doctoral degree from the Imperial College in London, England in the 1920's and served as plant physiologist and horticulturist under the British India government during the 1930's in Sabore, Bihar, India. He was invited by Syama Prasad Mookerjee to start the college. He was greatly influenced by Gandhi and Tagore and worked on village reconstruction in Santiniketan during the 1940's. He founded Seva-Bharati , at village Kapgari, Midnapur, West Bengal in 1948 as an experiment of applying education to elevate the living conditions of very poor. Professor Sen started with Kapgari, one of the poorest villages in India, and created schools ranging from nursery school up through research centers.[1]

Seva-Bharati today hosts the first Krish Vigyan Kendra SBKVK in West Bengal, Agricultural Research Center of University of Calcutta, Degree college under Vidyasagar University, High School, Basic and pre-basic schools under the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education.

[edit] External links

• Seva-Bharati at propoor.org

Professor Pabitra Kumar Sen was the first Khaira Professor of Agriculture in Calcutta University KhairaProfessor

Seva-Bharati, Kapgari, West Bengal has a full fledged educational system starting from Kindergarten to degree college. Currently the degree collage Seva-Bharati Mahavidyalaya is under Vidyasagar University in West Bengal SBMahavidyalaya UGC

Seva-Bharati Krishi Vigyan Kendra (Agricultural Research Center) SevaBharatiKVK was initiated by ICAR and started in 1976 at Kapgari under the auspices of Seva-Bharati

The Origin and Practice of Participatory Rural Appraisal, Institute of Developmental Studies, Brighton, UK - work done at Seva-Bharati, Kapgari by K. Kar PAR

Seva-Bharati Mahavidyalaya (degree college) was founded in 1964 under Calcutta University. Presently it is under Vidyasagar University Vidyasagar University

The year 2006 happens to be the birth centenary year of Prof. Pabitra Kumar Sen -- Professor Emeritus of the Calcutta University and recipient of the prestigious ‘Rathindra Nath Tagore Award for Rural Development’. He is also acclaimed to be the pioneer in the arena of agricultural education in West Bengal.

Prof. Pabitra Kumar Sen was born on the 15th day of May, 1906 in Kumilla District of erstwhile Purba Pakistan (now Bangladesh) to the parents Neelkamal Sen and Kasibasi Debi. He was graduated from Presidency College and obtained his Master’s Degree from the University of Calcutta. Later, in 1932, Prof. Sen was awarded Ph. D. Degree from London.

Before Indian Independence Prof. Sen was a First Class Officer of the then Imperial Council of Agricultural Research (India) and also Professor of Plant Physiology and Horticulture of Bihar Agriculture College.

With the attainment of National Freedom in 1947, great hopes were enkindled in the hearts of the Indian people. Prof. Sen had been one among the few patriotic scholars who resolved to step out of the ivory towers and dedicate themselves to the task of national reconstruction beginning with the work in the countryside.

Prof. Pabitra Kumar Sen believed that education as a catalyst for change could bring hopes to the downtrodden people of rural India. To translate his conviction into reality he founded “SEVA BHARATI” in 1948 at a remote village called Kapgari in the district of Paschim Midnapur, belonging to an area which is coterminous with the Chhotanagpur Plateau -- where nature is not bountiful and which is inhabited by economically and socially handicapped groups of people.

Over the years of functioning, apart from undertaking numerous agricultural / rural development programmes, Prof. Sen established over a 100-acre campus of Seva Bharati several formal and non-formal educational institutes including: Agrarian Research Centre (1951), Nursery School (1960), Junior Basic School (1956), Kapgari Seva Bharati Vidyayatan (1958), Seva Bharati Mahavidyalaya (1964), Centre for Social Studies (1968), J. C. Kumarappa School of Village Industries (1976), Seva Bharati Krishi Vigyan Kendra (1976), etc.

Prof. Sen left for his heavenly abode on 15th of September, 1997. Presently, Seva Bharati also houses Prof. P. K. Sen Primary Teachers’ Training Institute and Pabitra Sishu Siksha Niketan, both established in memory of Prof Sen.

Members and staff of all the Institutes in Seva Bharati now desire to celebrate the birth centenary of Prof. P. K. Sen in a befitting manner by undertaking programmes through out the year 2006. A “Prof. P. K. Sen Birth Centenary Celebration Committee” has been constituted involving representatives from all the Institutes in and around Seva Bharati. Prof. Soumitra K. Sen chairs the Celebration Committee.