Pabitra Kumar Sen

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 1950s. Professor Sen obtained his doctoral degree from the Imperial College in London, England in the 1920s and served as plant physiologist and horticulturist under the British India government during the 1930s 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 1940s. 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. [http://www.kapgari.org]

Seva-Bharati today hosts the first Krish Vigyan Kendra [http://www.indiadairy.com/tech_education_research_addresses.html 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.

External links

* [http://propoor.org/ngos/?id=1873 Seva-Bharati at propoor.org]

Professor Pabitra Kumar Sen was the first Khaira Professor of Agriculture in Calcutta University [http://www.banglapedia.org/HT/U_0028.HTM 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 [http://gist.ap.nic.in/cgi-bin/edn/ednshow.cgi/?en=14265 SBMahavidyalaya] [http://www.ugc.ac.in/inside/alphareco_college.php?resultpage=5&st=S UGC]

Seva-Bharati Krishi Vigyan Kendra (Agricultural Research Center) [http://sevabharatikvk.org/ 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 [http://72.14.253.104/custom?q=cache:3Mh9XCcEDhwJ:www.childsurvival.com/connections/Chambers-OriginsPractice.doc+Seva-Bharati+Kapgari&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=5&gl=in&client=pub-1950597685981852 PAR]

Seva-Bharati Mahavidyalaya (degree college) was founded in 1964 under Calcutta University. Presently it is under Vidyasagar University Vidyasagar University. It is to be mentioned that Seva-Bharati Mahavidyalaya and the total project of Seva-Bharati flourished at the late 60's and early 70's under the able leadership of another great educationist Dr. Byomkes Chakrabarti. Byomkesh Chakrabarti(1923-1981) was a renowned research worker on ethnic languages and was the first Ph.D. on Santali Linguistics. He was a poet too. During Dr. Chakrabarti's period as Principal of the college Dr Sen's dream project reached the peak with enthusiasm and popularity among common people. Fact|washburnmav|date=July 2008

The year 2006 happens to be the birth centenary yearof Prof. Pabitra Kumar Sen -- Professor Emeritus ofthe Calcutta University and recipient of theprestigious ‘Rathindra Nath Tagore Award for RuralDevelopment’. He is also acclaimed to be the pioneerin the arena of agricultural education in West Bengal. Prof. Pabitra Kumar Sen was born on the 15th day ofMay, 1906 in Kumilla District of erstwhile PurbaPakistan (now Bangladesh) to the parents Neelkamal Senand Kasibasi Debi. He was graduated from PresidencyCollege and obtained his Master’s Degree from theUniversity of Calcutta. Later, in 1932, Prof. Sen wasawarded Ph. D. Degree from London. Before Indian Independence Prof. Sen was a First ClassOfficer of the then Imperial Council of AgriculturalResearch (India) and also Professor of PlantPhysiology and Horticulture of Bihar AgricultureCollege. With the attainment of National Freedom in 1947, greathopes were enkindled in the hearts of the Indianpeople. Prof. Sen had been one among the few patrioticscholars who resolved to step out of the ivory towersand dedicate themselves to the task of nationalreconstruction beginning with the work in thecountryside. Prof. Pabitra Kumar Sen believed that education as acatalyst for change could bring hopes to thedowntrodden people of rural India. To translate hisconviction into reality he founded “SEVA BHARATI” in1948 at a remote village called Kapgari in thedistrict of Paschim Midnapur, belonging to an areawhich is coterminous with the Chhotanagpur Plateau --where nature is not bountiful and which is inhabitedby economically and socially handicapped groups ofpeople. Over the years of functioning, apart from undertakingnumerous agricultural / rural development programmes,Prof. Sen established over a 100-acre campus of SevaBharati several formal and non-formal educationalinstitutes including: Agrarian Research Centre (1951),Nursery School (1960), Junior Basic School (1956),Kapgari Seva Bharati Vidyayatan (1958), Seva BharatiMahavidyalaya (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 ofSeptember, 1997. Presently, Seva Bharati also housesProf. P. K. Sen Primary Teachers’ Training Instituteand Pabitra Sishu Siksha Niketan, both established inmemory of Prof Sen. Members and staff of all the Institutes in SevaBharati now desire to celebrate the birth centenary ofProf. P. K. Sen in a befitting manner by undertakingprogrammes through out the year 2006. A “Prof. P. K.Sen Birth Centenary Celebration Committee” has beenconstituted involving representatives from all theInstitutes in and around Seva Bharati. Prof. SoumitraK. Sen chairs the Celebration Committee.