The Drought of 1972 that Maharashtra witnessed; was a challenge to all both the people and Government of Maharashtra. Realizing the need of the hour; the then government geared all its machinery to meet the challenge. The then chief minister of Maharashtra; Mr. Vasantrao Naik foreseeing the limitations that any Government, called upon the people to pitch in. Keeping this in mind a group of people aware of their social responsibility came forward and formed a forum to fight the Drought. This group was named as ‘RSS Dushkal Nivaran Samiti’ [ RSS Drought Eradication Committee] and this time once again RSS remained true to the trust people had in their work and capability. People of Maharashtra too were motivated to help and they joined these helping hands, by contributing in every possible way they could. People of every section and class of the society were part of this initiative; People worked as sincere volunteers in this samiti and contributed in every possible way; may it be money, experience or expertise to fight the challenge had at hand. Even the Government acknowledged the path breaking work done by this group.
Soon the people of Maharashtra overcame the natural calamity by facing it unitedly. As the effect of Drought started decreasing, people started relaxing with a sense of achievement; but the members of this Samiti were not ready to relax as they knew that uplifting the society was work in progress and they at hand, ad a huge potential source of energy which could be used further to help the weaker sections of the society. As the work slowed down a thought started emerging that; when a calamity happened, such temporary groups were formed, the government pitched in with temporary arrangements and as the problem subsided, people went back to their normal routine and there were no permanent solutions. This was the moment when the think tank at RSS Dushkal Nivaran Samiti started thinking of a long term plan; now that they had the support from a large section of the society and they had dedicated volunteers, they thought of not letting this opportunity of helping the society go away; instead they thought converting this energy into a permanent entity. Then a decision was taken to convert the forum into a permanent committee which would be devoted to the social cause of uplifting the weaker section of the society and instead of providing piece meal solutions, providing permanent solutions by involving the beneficiary’s into the process. The with its manpower prevalent in far stretched Maharashtra relying on the goodness of generous people who have truly understood their social responsibility. Thus the ‘RSS Dushkal Nivaran Samiti’ was renamed as ‘RSS Jankalyan Samiti’ and formed as a NGO in the social service space.
The members of this Samiti understood the need to be specific about their areas of work, and they decided on the areas of, value based education, health awareness, imbibing self-reliance and disaster management. They also decided that they would work for the under privileged and the needy segments of the society and would not discriminate between them based on their location viz, rural or urban area.
Since then Jankalyan Samiti has participated in relief operations during all major natural calamities our nation has witnessed, it has always contributed selflessly its available resources; both money and volunteers.
To name few; it has actively provided relief during, the Drought of 1972, Earthquake of 1993 in Latur (Killari), Earthquake of 2006 in Kutch-Gujrat, Floods of Bihar, Typhoons of Orissa, Tsunami of 2012 in Tamilnadu, Drought in Maharashtra in 2013, Landslides of 2013 in Uttarakhand.
Today ‘RSS Jankalyan Samiti’ has evolved to a state level organization. Its areas of operation being; Mumbai, Konkan, Western Maharashtra, North Maharashtra and Marathwada