About Us

The origin of GPSVS lies in the work of three legends Mahatma Gandhi, Acharya Vinoba Bhave and Jai Prakash Narain in the area known as Mithila. Traditionally, Mithila has been the land of inequalities with a few big landlords enjoying lives at the cost of the majority having either no land, or possessing very small land. This gross inequality and imbalance drew attention of the veteran Sarvodaya leader Acharya Vinoba Bhave, who started the movement of bhoodan in Darbhanga district. Under this movement, Bhave sought land from the landlords through donation and distributed the same among the landless. This was his way of bringing about non-violent social change. As bhoodan movement gained momentum, bigger largesse on the part of landlords came in the shape of gramdan (donation of village) and later ziladan (donation of entire land held by landlords).

But land alone was not going to solve the problems of the people. It was necessary that they were given a voice too. Efforts in this direction were started in neighbouring Ghoghardiha and Phulparas blocks of Madhubani district by constituting gram sabhas there. A native of this area, Tapeshwar Bhai, who was inspiring the youth all over the state by his revolutionary songs and action, was asked by the Sarvodaya leaders and the local people to take up development work in the area.

GPSVS is an outcome of these historical events. Decision to form GPSVS was taken in 1977 at a meeting of social workers of the area and was formally registered under the Societies Registration Act of 1860 on July 11, 1978. The organisation celebrated its 25th anniversary to the service of humanity in the year 2002.

Initial focus of GPSVS was on organisation of Gram Sabhas (Village Forums) and Mahila Mandals (Women Committees) with representation of every section of society in it. The Gram Sabhas had separate wings such as youth, women, bhoodan farmers, etc., to address their appropriate needs. After this formative phase, a massive programme of awareness generation was taken up. This was followed by other pro-poor development activities with the support of local communities and support agencies.

Since its formation, GPSVS has grown into a professionally managed organisation, where development professionals and grassroots activists work in unison to bring about social change.