1987
The Angammal Educational Trust is registered
Five years before it has a college to run. The money is coming from a cattle feed unit in the founder's own hamlet.
Since 1987
Three trusts, one argument
That a rural family's future turns on whether its daughters are educated, and that if the colleges will not come to them, you build the colleges where they already are.
1992
A pharmacy collegeon farmland
Dr. M. Karunanithi was born on 20 November 1952 into a farming family at Elayampalayam, a hamlet near Tiruchengode. He went to the local school, then to Madurai Medical College to study pharmacy, and spent his first five working years as a chemist at a private medical company in Namakkal.
Growing up in a village, he saw how little schooling the women around him were given, and how much of what happened to them followed from that. He decided the answer was to educate them. Raising the money took years. He started a cattle feed manufacturing unit in his hamlet and made it work, and that paid for the first college.
Swamy Vivekanandha College of Pharmacy opened in 1992 under the Angammal Educational Trust, named after the philosopher who had argued for educating women. Colleges in arts and science, engineering, education, pharmacy, nursing, physiotherapy, allied health, dentistry and medicine followed. Vivekanandha Vidhya Bhavan was added when local families asked for a school.
Swamy Vivekanandha College of Pharmacy was the first, in 1992. There are now 27 institutions and about 3,000 people working in them.
How it grew
Thirty-four years,nine turning points
1992
Sixty-three students
Swamy Vivekanandha College of Pharmacy opens at Elayampalayam, named after the philosopher who argued for educating women.
2001
Engineering for women
Vivekanandha College of Engineering for Women admits its first cohort. It is later granted autonomy, as the arts and science college was.
2003
A health centre, with eyes first
Opened under the District Blind Control Society. Around 50,000 patients a year are treated free, cataract surgery included.
2007
A dental college for women
The first in India reserved for women students.
2010
A second campus
The Rabindranath Tagore Educational Charitable Trust at Sankagiri, started in 2002, comes into the group.
2011
Three hundred beds
The health centre becomes a multispecialty hospital with a cath lab and open heart surgery.
2014
Dr. Abdul Kalam visits
The President comes to the campus and speaks about the work being done for rural women's education.
2021
A medical college
A thousand-bed teaching hospital opens, the first private medical college in Namakkal district.
The trusts
Three registrations
1987
Angammal Educational Trust
Tiruchengode · 15 institutions
- 1992Swamy Vivekanandha College of Pharmacy
- 1993Vivekanandha College of Nursing
- 1995Vivekanandha College of Arts and Sciences for Women
- 2001Vivekanandha College of Engineering for Women
- and 11 more
2002
Rabindranath Tagore Educational Charitable Trust
Sankagiri · 7 institutions
- 2004Vivekanandha Arts and Science College for Women
- 2005Rabindranath Tagore College of Education for Women
- 2006Vivekanandha Nursing College for Women
- 2007Viswabharathi College of Education for Women
- and 3 more
2006
Krishna Educational and Charitable Trust
Tiruchengode · 5 institutions
- 2006Krishna College of Education for Women
- 2008Krishnashree College of Education for Women
- 2017Krishna Institute of Health Science
- 2017Vivekanandha Institute of Health Science
- and 1 more
Health care
From an eye campto a medical college
2003
A health centre with an eye department
Opened at Elayampalayam under the District Blind Control Society, a government scheme. It treats around 50,000 patients a year at no charge, cataract surgery included.
2011
Upgraded to 300 beds
The centre became the Vivekanandha Medical Care Hospital, a multispecialty hospital with a cath lab and open heart surgery, so that people in the villages around it did not have to travel to a city for specialist care.
2020
The district's only ICMR-approved private COVID-19 testing centre
Its laboratories are accredited by NABL, and the government approved the hospital to treat COVID-19 patients.
2021
Swamy Vivekanandha Medical College Hospital and Research Institute
A 1,000-bed teaching hospital, and the first private medical college in Namakkal district. It is where the medical, dental, nursing and allied health students train.
What it costs the trust
The part that is given away
- Free education for destitute children.
- Free transport for every student, across eight districts and a hundred-kilometre radius.
- Free boarding and lodging for faculty and staff in the hostels.
- Free food every day for the roughly 1,000 drivers, cleaners and maintenance workers.
- Relief during the Thane (2011) and Khaja (2018) cyclones, and food and medical aid through COVID-19.
- Four temples built, and regular contributions to temple renovation and consecration across four districts.
₹17 crore
spent so far supporting students who did well academically but could not meet the fee.
₹2 crore
a year in scholarships and financial assistance, on average.
50,000
patients a year treated free in the eye department, cataract surgery included.
6,000
patients a year treated free at the hospital, at a cost of about ₹75 lakh.
Women taught since 1992
1.5 lakh
Most of them the first woman in their family to hold a degree, and a good number the first to leave the village for one.