Welcome

MITRANIKETAN is an experimental non-profit social and educational project, founded by K.Viswanathan near Vellanad, his native village, 30 km from Trivandrum, the capital of Kerala in south India. The project was begun with a view to offering education and training in a holistic spirit to primarily socially underprivileged children and youngsters. The organization focuses on alternative education mode for development.

It is a 500-member community, including a staff of 100 men and women.  It operates on a 60-acre campus in architecturally untraditional buildings with classrooms dotted around in a hilly green palm forest. There is a children's hostel, a students' college and hostel, a gym and sports field, a guest house, vocational training workshops, small art and grocery shops, a small but exquisite bakery, a pottery, offices etc. Architecturally noteworthy are especially the open assembly hall and the modest but beautiful home of Visnawathan and his wife, Sethu Viswanathan, at the centre of the settlement. 

VISWANATHAN (b. 1928) graduated from Viswabharati (formerly Santiniketan) university in Calcutta, studied educational development in USA and Scandinavia, and in the process was inspired to launch the Mitraniketan project, "The Home of Friends" in 1956. His endeavours over these more than 50 years have established the place as an internationally reputed institution for learning and development.                        more>>

Activities

DEVELOPMENT EDUCATION PROGRAMMES:- The residential high school is intended for the education and training of tribal children, the focus of the school including integrated education progammes aimed at a holistic development of the children, and with a variety of development activities specially for empowering the marginalized sections of society.  

Volunteering

Mitraniketan offers volunteer work opportunities to students, social workers, educationalists and others interested in lending a hand to developing and realizing the ideas of the project within fields such as personal development, women empowerment, technology, agriculture and horticulture, academic subjects, health, sports etc. Here volunteers from India and abroad work together instructing and learning from the students and each other. The common means of communication being English, language teachers are heartily welcome, but also doctors and nurses are   in great demand.

Educational Tourism

Mitraniketan operates on a 60-acre campus in the rural area outside the village of Vellanad in the Trivandrum (Thiruvananthapuram) district of Kerala, South India. The campus houses a variety of development activities oriented at education and human resource development, with residential school classes and unique buildings dotted around the green campus, such as a children's hostel, people's college and students' hostel, education research centre, agriculture and farming facilities, vocational training workshops, fruit processing unit, dairy section, health centre, tissue culture lab, farm science centre, rural technology centre, guest house, indoor and open stadiums and staff quarters. All of these centres support the activities of a 500-member community including 100 staff members .