Akhil Bharatiya Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram President Jagadevaram Oraon passed away on Wednesday. He was 70.
Reportedly, after a meeting with RSS' Akhil Bharatiya Karyakarini in Jashpur, Chhattisgarh, Oraon went to have lunch. However, he fainted after having his meal and was then rushed to the district hospital, where he died during treatment at 3 pm.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and RSS Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat mourned his demise.
PM Modi took to Twitter and said that Jagadevaram Oraon's life was devoted to serving the tribal communities. He wrote, "Anguished by the passing away of Shri Jagdeoram Oran Ji, President of the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram. His was a life devoted to serving the tribal communities. He was known for his kind and hardworking nature. Om Shanti."
RSS Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat paid a tribute to the Akhil Bharatiya Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram President. He said that the death was an unbearable shock for all of them, Sangh swayamsevaks and volunteers of Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram.
Bhagwat said that Oraon's association with the Kalyan Ashram and the Sangh began when he was a tender teenager. "He has uncompromisingly devoted his entire life with a mission to serve the Society until his very last breath. Due to his soft-spoken demeanour and mature intellect, he commanded the respect of all karyakartas and emerged as their leader," he wrote.
Bhagwat added that Jagadevaram Oraon had become the voice of Vanavasis. "Along with his responsibilities at Kalyan Ashram, his dedicated work expanded to make him grow like a Banyan Tree, as the custodian of the Karyakartas of Kalyan Ashram as well as in the consolidation of the ideological ethos of the Ashram," he said in the note.
Jagdevaram Oraon had become a volunteer of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) at the age of 12 in 1962. The same year he came in contact with the Vanvasi Kalyan Kendra. He was made the vice-president of Kalyan Ashram in 1985. Later, in September 1993, he became the National President of the Akhil Bharatiya Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram and continued to serve the tribal communities till his last breath.
