 Though
healthcare is the area of focus, socio economic factors plays an important
role towards total development of the villages. With this view in
mind, various socio-economic development programmes have been taken
up :
A Community
Polytechnic run at the Khanpur Branch Centre in collaboration
with the Ramakrishna Mission Shilpamandira, Belur Math trains a number of the village youth in various trades of radio, TV repairing and carpentary free of charges.
Similar training is undertaken at the Somsar centre.
After training, a follow-up programme is under way where the trainees are provided advice and assistance in setting up their own entrepreneural units and plans are afoot to utilize the services of these trained youth.
  A separate tailoring training centre exclusively for women is also run where training on tailoring, cutting and designing are imparted with a
view to make the village women socio-economically self-sufficient at the Khanpur and Somsar centres. A new unit for training on tailoring has been started at Gopalpur with around 20 ladies.
Training in wool knitting has been running for around 4 years at the Khanpur Centre. Till date, around 222 ladies have been admitted out of which around 168 have been trained up. The training programme has 32 ladies in its rolls at present. The ladies who have successfully completed training have procured their own machines and are pursuing the trade commercially. With the help of the Sangha, they are securing orders and supplying winter garments to Kolkata and earning well.
 
With technical help from the Ramakrishna Mission, a new programme of training in poultry farming has begun at the Gopalpur Centre to initiate economic development programme in the area and enable more number of youth to earn their living independently making use of their village resources efficiently. 
The computer training programme taken up by the Khanpur Centre with a present capacity of around 25 students. Done with the help of Sarada Math to provide an avenue to the students in the area, the programme has gained popularity. Interested boys and girls are given training in a basic computer curriculum.
A micro deposit scheme has been started through the Centre at Gopalpur. The scheme is at present successfully carried out by two groups in the area and is spreading to villages around.
Agricultural workshops are organized as a part of the rural development activities undertaken by the Sangha. Special group discussions, workshops are held where systematic and need based application of fertilizers and pesticides are taught. These programmes have yielded some positive results in the Khanpur area. An experimental work was taken up at Khanpur as per the recommendations of UNO's FAO by associating International Rice Research Institute at Chinsurah, West Bengal, to practically demonstrate to farmers, the improved methods of cultivation of high-yielding paddy. A programme on flower preservation and nurturing was conducted with the help of National Botanical Research Institute.
| Performance
of the Socio-economic Development Programmes ) |
| Trades |
Enrolled |
Under training |
Completed |
Self
Employed |
| Wool
Knitting |
50 |
15 |
17 |
11 |
| Tailoring |
32 |
9 |
23 |
15 |
| Source
: Annual Report 2004-2005 |
|
