Brief Club History
In the year 1990, then the District Governor Late Dr. R.M. Bhat, entrusted Rtn. Narendra P. Mathur, President of Rotary Club of Mulund, with the responsibilities of forming a new Club in Bhandup.
Rtn. Narendra Mathur was aware of the unsuccessful efforts made during 1979-80 for forming a Rotary Club in the locality. He managed to regroup some of the persons involved in this effort and with the help of stalwarts like Rtn. Madhukar Deodhar and Late Rtn. Niranjan Uzgare of his own club, organized weekly meetings. Having satisfied about the viability, he submitted a proposal for forming a club with 25 Charter members, with Jagdish Khemka as the Charter President. Rotary Club of Ghatkopar sponsored the club as we shared their territory.
Rotary International admitted the club on 29th June, 1990 and the Charter was received in October, 1990.
The Charter was presented by IPDG Dr. R.M. Bhat, who is signatory on the Charter, on 24th November, 1990 at a glittering function held at Hotel Centaur Airport in the presence of District Governor Dr. Venkat Rao Gadwal, R.I. Director Late Rtn. Soli Pawri, PDG Manibhai Doshi, Rtn. Kishor Jobalia, Rtn. J.T. Vyas and others.
Over the years the Club has made its presence felt in the areas of its operation at Bhandup and Kanjur Marg by various service projects like Railway Station up-gradation (provision of benches, fans etc.), Medical camps (diabetes, eye, cancer, dental etc), cataract operations, Polio immunization, Seminars on variety of subjects like Career Guidance, Entrepreneurship Development, Industrial safety etc., organizing consumer awareness/guidance seminars/workshops, donation/loan scholarship to the needy students, Slumber kit distribution, Awards/felicitation of meritorious students/teachers, Vocational awards to outstanding citizens, establishment of a deaf school (now handed over to National Education Society, Bhandup), adoption of Tank Road Municipal School where number of projects were 8 carried out like drinking water facility, distribution of uniforms, notebooks, scholarship books, footwear; organizing various competitions like music competition, Rangoli competition, elocution competition etc.; organizing Polio Corrective surgeries; carrying out various projects at the Rajaram Sheth Vidyalaya, Khindipada, Bhandup which mainly caters to tribal and slum area children like organizing medical checkup camps, adopting poor students/students without parents, donation of notebooks, uniforms, fans to class rooms, Instruments for school Band, Construction of Science Laboratory and providing laboratory equipments (2004-05), providing electricity, water supply and drinking water facility (2005- 06), Toilet blocks for girl students (2006-07), reconstruction of class rooms (2007-08), providing computers and part financing the making of computer room (2008-09).
For many years we were running a vocational training center (Tailoring) at Tank Road Municipal School wherein we had provided seven tailoring machines to the center. This has provided livelihood for large number of women from the lower strata of the society. We have regularly taken part in the district’s midday meal program in association with ISKCON. We constructed a check dam at Mohili Village in Thane District (2006-07) and donated uniforms, scholarship books, fans etc to the Zilla Prishad Shala of Mohili in the years 2007- 08 and 2008-09.
In 2008-09 we donated 20 dual desks for the Mohili village school. In 2011-12 we donated 10 dual desks to Mohilipada Zilla Parishad Shala, in Mohili, Bhiwandi; 10 dual desks to Saraswati High School in Tulshetpada, Bhandup; Constructed a bore well and drinking water facility in Mohili village and installed two solar street lights at Katkaripada village in Jawahar Taluka in Thane District.
During the Rotary year 2012-13 and 2013-14 we adopted 16 & 31 poor students respectively without parents/with single parent of Rajaram Sheth Vidyalaya, Khindipada, Bhandup; Constructed a toilet block with six toilets for girls and four toilets and four urinals for the boys at Rajaram Sheth Vidyalaya; donated 89 dual desks, 25 desk top computers with operating chairs, 40 ceiling fans, four blackboards, four lecture platforms and one LCD projector to Rajaram Sheth Vidyalaya; built a twin toilet block with water supply facility at Mohili village; provided a bore well and drinking water facility at Borichiwadi hamlet of Mohili village. Total project outlay during the year was to the tune of Rs. 28 lacs out of which about Rs. 25 lacs was from M/s Asian Paints Ltd from their CSR funds.
During the year 2014-15 once again we tied up with M/s Asian Paints Ltd, in their CSR initiative wherein we donated 180 dual desks, 10 lecture platforms, 10 blackboards(green boards) and 10 podiums with a total outlay of about Rs. 13 lakhs. During the year 2015-16 we constructed four toilet blocks at Navsamaj Vidyamandir, Manvili at Dugadphata in Bhiwandi Taluka with help from District Grant. We also donated for two toilet blocks under the district project of Sukhada-WINS. During Rotary year 2016-17 we provided bore wells and hand pumps in five villages of Bhiwandi Taluka with the help of District Grant. Also an SME seminar was organized during the year. In the year 2017-18, we carried out the District 9 Grant Project of providing bore wells and rain water harvesting facility at two locations in Pardi Parnera village of Valsad district in Gujarat. We also organized District level water seminar “Nature for Water” which was co-hosted by 44 Rotary clubs.
During 2018-19 we had a mega fund raising program by “Klub Nostalgia” at Kalidas Natyamandir, Mulund. It was a very successful program wherein we had a net collection of about rupees one lakh which has been added to our corpus fund. During 2019-20 we implemented a District Grant project of providing CCTV system, Public Address system and Laboratory Equipments to Vidyadhiraja High School and junior College at Bhandup East.
In the year 2020-21 we participated in the District Project ‘Aashiyana’ In the year 2021-22 we participated in the District Project ‘ Miyawaki Forest Plantation’. During this year our club membership increased from 14-52.
The club is known for its excellent fellowship –Rotary Anns actively participate in all club meetings/projects/functions.
The club originally was known as Rotary Club of Bombay North East changed its name to Rotary Club of Mumbai Bhandup in the year 1999-2000 to better identify with the area we serve. The club has a Charitable Trust viz. “Rotary Club of Bombay North East Charitable Trust” which boasts of a comfortable corpus thanks to the untiring efforts of stalwarts like PP Y. Venkitachalam, the main architect of the corpus.
The club has excellent partner in “Inner Wheel Club of Mumbai Bhandup” with its very active members, some outstanding projects and also a reasonable corpus for funding club projects. We also have Rotaract clubs and Interact clubs which were chartered during the year 2015-16.
Number of our senior Rotarians have been in the District team over the years. PP Rtn. Narayana Shagrithaya has served the district as Assistant Governor, Assistant Trainer, Avenue Chair, Rotary Coordinator, District Training Facilitator, Counsellor, and is now the Avenue Co-Chair, WASH in the year 2022-2023. PP Vinodkumar Aggarwal was the Director in the District Conference team in 2019-20 and is now the Assistant Governor for the year 2022-2023. PP Lata Jha was the Assistant Governor for the year 2021-2022 and is now the Assistant Trainer for the year 2022-2023. Our total contribution to the Rotary Foundation today stands at about US$ 23000 and we have 24 PHF’s, one of them being 6 star(PP Vinodkumar Aggarwal) and one other 3 star. During the years 2007-08 and 2010-11 our club achieved the EREY (Every Rotarian Every Year) status. Our Club membership increased from 14 to 52 in the year 2021-2022.
Today we are in the 33 rd year of our club and we remain committed to serve the community in the best possible manner.