Dr Arabinda Mukherjee gives his heart to help all the people who come to see him, whoever they are and whenever they come. He is very dedicated to the people of this world and he has no discrimination between the poor and the rich, between men and women, or between different religions and races. He gives way a large amount of his earnings for people who are more needy. In his own way he has been donating towards many good causes for villagers in India. He offers money and support for education, health services and religious practices. He has offered support and money to different religious institutes, including temples and mosques. He has built facilities in both temples and mosques in poor villages, especially in Birbhum, West Bengal. He has given the money to the Rabindra Bharati University in Calcutta to support and promote the legacy of the great poet and Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore. He is the first person to give a large ambulance for the villagers of Birbhum in West Bengal. This has given the villagers considerable help and support. Dr Arabinda Mukherjee believes that if this ambulance has saved even one life then his contributions have been fulfilled and God has accepted the offerings.
He continues to give support to village schools in West Bengal. One of these schools is in Kagram, Murshidabad. The name of this school is Kagram Amarnath Mukherjee Higher Secondary School. This is one of the largest schools in the region and students come from neighbouring villages to study here. This school is 121 years old and has over 1200 students in the school, many of whom come from desperately deprived family circumstances. The school itself has been much neglected and is in urgent need of renovation and development. This is a mixed school. Almost half of the students are girls and amongst the students they have an approximately 50: 50 ratio of Hindus and Muslims. The village of Kagram is a very peaceful place and all the community live harmoniously together. It is situated about 200 miles from Calcutta. Arabinda Mukherjee has taken a challenge to make this school a model school in West Bengal. He has taken a pledge to spend well over £50,000.00. By the end of 2005 he has spent over £30,000.00. The school has now a new two storied building. A new library will be open in early 2006 which will have over 50,000 books. Soon there will be computers and other facilities and good sports and arts activities introduced. A large number of scholarships have been created to support needy and willing students. This will be an ongoing work for Dr Arabinda Mukherjee during the rest of his life.
Inauguration of new school building and the library hall and the sports centre.
The first phase of the development work has been completed but further work will resume soon. We have been able to renovate the old buildings which were over 14000 sq . ft in area. We have made boundary walls to protect the buildings, complete with iron gates, so that the students can be protected and remain inside the building in the school hours. We have created a totally new entrance hall for the building. We have also completed a new two story building of over 4000 sq. ft area, which has a large hall of 2000 sq. ft. We have also built a new open air stage adjacent to the new building. This building was inaugurated on the 18th February 2006 by The Rt. Honourable Speaker of the Indian Parliament Mr Somnath Chatterjee. This inauguration ceremony has created a huge boost to the village and also to the surrounding area. The attitude of the teachers and also the students has already changed in a much better way. I am expecting that the class 10 [which is equivalent to GCSE] and class 12 [ Equivalent to A-Level] final exams which are being held presently will produce improved results. The new hall is being built as the central library. We are making proper wooden shelving with covers to protect the books. We are creating a ‘Book bank’ so that most of the students will one day not need to buy books, but can borrow and return the books at the end of the school year. This will help many, many families. It is our aim to introduce computing facilities in the library. We aim to purchase well over 10,000 thousands books and the average price for the book will be around Rs 40. We have almost 30 teachers and they are all preparing the book lists and hoping to purchase the books during the coming months. I also have the aim to provide music and handicraft centres for the students as well as a sports centre. Sports centre has been completed and it has boundary wall with proper gate etc. so the students can play freely there and protect and maintain the field nicely. This is becoming a pride to the students and also the young people in the village. I am expecting that the library and the sports and music centre will be used not only by the pupils but also by all the villagers and also neighbouring villagers. This will bring a sense of life to the community and also much togetherness. This is will be huge boost for the people in the entire area.
4th December 2003, front page news about Arabinda Mukherjee:
http://www.anandabazar.com/archive/1031204/4south1.htm
5th December 2003, the news about Dr Arabinda Mukherjee