The essence of Mr. Shantilal Muttha's inspiring life story is he turned the adverse circumstances into his strength to lead a meaningful life. This is the success story of a man who tried to give back to society in the most humble way by taking up social causes that changed the society. He is a man who has always been giving. Giving in terms of money, resources, ideas, energy, time and commitment. An ideal personification of philanthropy. Aparighrah, a basic tenet in Jainism comes alive through his actions and deeds.

Born into a poor family in the most backward district of Maharashtra (Aug 15, 1954, at Dongarkini, Dist: Beed) he had to enroll himself into a boarding school because of the untimely death of his mother, and because his father had to move places catering to the daily needs of the poor landless sugarcane labourers.

He learned the curriculum in the school but imbibed the values and life skills in the hostels. Deprivation taught him sharing. This was the timezone when he might have made a pledge to work for the welfare of society. The seeds were sown. And the tree grew into an umbrella orgnisation called Bharatiya Jain Sanghatana (BJS). A unique orgnisation working in the field of social service, humanitarian help in natural disasters, hostels & education to the helpless in calamities for the last quarter of a century and now has emerged as one of the best, professionally managed, non-profit and apolitical secular social orgnisation having a nationwide footprint.

After gaining a little work experience soon after graduation from Pune, Mr. Muttha started his own construction business, and simultaneouly moved into the realm of social service.
To perpare himself for the right type of intervention, Mr. Muttha undertook a padyatra (1988-89) of 3000 km in the state and did the reality check into the mind of society. His long walk gave birth to many ideas, including the epoch making concept of mass marriages and realized the symptoms of adverse gender ratio.

Mr. Muttha, who is credited with the idea of mass marriages (first event on 25th May 1986), orgnised a big event in Pune on 7th Jan 1989 where 625 couples belonging to all religions were married in a mass ceremony under one roof, with little or no expenses to the families and without sacrificing religious rituals. The event became talk of the town and inspired many social groupings to undertake this activity into various parts of the state transcending caste and relilgion.

Eventually it became a movement leading to social reengineering and bringing happiness into thousands of poor homes. And, even Mr. Muttha’s family is not an exception. He married his both children, daughter Sonali and son Sameer in these mass marriages ceremonies on 9th December 2001 and 10th May 2003 respectively. This brought accolades to Muttha family from across the communities and increased the USP of the very novel idea and program of mass marriages.

Incidentally, the unaffordable expenses during the marriage ceremonies and the dowry system is one of the major causes for the indebtedness of the poor in India.
Mr. Muttha is responsible for bringing back the smile on many faces, young & old, through the free plastic surgery medical camps he has organized since 1990. He has been inviting Dr. Sharad Kumar Dixit, a prominent plastic surgeon from USA, to do free camps at more than 25 locations every year from last more than 15 years. More than 1.25 lacs surgery took place in the state & lacs of people have been benifitted. The expenses are borne by BJS.

It was Mr. Muttha, who volunteed to organise a Peace March in the state after the communal riots in the wake of the demolition of Babari Masjid in 1992. The religious heads of Hindu, Muslim and Jain religions, along with many other dignitaries led the march from Pune to Nagpur and appealed for peace and communal harmony. Peace is a watchword in all BJS activities during the last      25 years, which eventually prompted Mr. Muttha to undertake a massive peace & value education programme in schools in 2009.

It was the devastating Latur earthqueke in 1993, which brought Mr. Muttha at the center of humanitarian help. But he went much beyond than giving termporary aid to the affected population. It was his idea to start a very ambitious programme of educationally rehabilitating the school children of the area and this gave birth to the Wagholi Educational Reahabilitation Center (WERC) in Pune. He brought 1200-orphaned children from 5th to 10th std., started a school and hostel for them and helped them till their graduation.

This is one of the best-equipped educational and residential facilities in and around Pune, built with the help of Govt. of Maharashtra and the World Bank, which is being used to shelter orphan and deprived children even today. Our former president Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam was so moved by the work being done there, during his visit, that he gave his donation from his personal account.
It was here in this complex; the school children from Melghat (Malnourished Children) Jabalpur (earthquake 1997) and Kashmir (2005) were accommodated during the natural calamities.

The chain of good work and deeds continued even in the 21st century.
Mr. Muttha and his organisation BJS, built 368 school buildings with one thousand classrooms in 267 villages in just 90 days after the Gujrat earthquake in 2001, provided rescue, relief and rehabilitation to many during the Tsunami on the eastern coast in 2005.
His work in Andaman & Nicobar Islands during the same period received accolades from the Govt. of India. Mr. Muttha built 11 School buildings, 30 primary health sub centers & 4 PHCs, which are permanent and quake resistant structures in very difficult areas. It merits special mention because, considering the logistics problems, it was a mammoth task.

Mr. Muttha’s expertise and experience in disaster management was again critical, when he was invited by National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) to help to provide shelter to the people of J & K during the earthquake in 2005. 15,000 earthquake victims were provided shelter before the advent of winter. This task was completed within a month’s time, when Mr. Muttha moved all the temporary structures from Gujarat to Kashmir exclusively using three dedicated goods trains.
Again, 500 children from J & K, who were victims of the same disaster, were brought to Pune, along with their teachers and social workers and helped them, continue their education till the crisis was over.

The relief and rehabilitation work in the aftermath of Jammu & Kashmir earthquake done by BJS had a special mention in the Lok Sabha on 28th November 2005 in a statement made by the Minister of State, Home Affairs.
This educational rehabilitation brought Mr. Muttha at the center of many critical educational issues and problems. He thought that quality of education is one area where effective intervention with technological inputs will bring a big change in the present structure.

He appointed a professional team to do the research and design effective programs that will act as catalysts in the process of change.  This new initiative, which is being decribed as BJS-EDUQIP is a basket of more than a dozen programs which mainly contains School Accreditation Programs, Teachers Training Programs, Students Assesment Programs, Management Development Programs, etc. All these programs together are aimed at improving the quality of education in primary and secondary schools in the most comprehensive way.

This basket of programs, which is being continuously strengthened, has been implemented in A & N island schools, Navoday Vidyalayas of the Central Govt. and many Jain Educational Institutions all over the country. The same programs are being implemented in all schools in the state of Goa and recently the Govt. of Gujrat has signed an M.O.U. with BJS for the same. Nearly 42,000 schools in Gujrat would change significantly in the near future, because these programs are being tailored to suit their needs.

Mr. Muttha has a strong desire and intent and belive that these programs have the potential to change the face and soul of all the ten lakh schools in the country. And his belief is not unfounded. He has seen this change taking place in many of the Jain Educational Institutions. It was Mr. Muttha’s idea to form a federation of nearly 2500 educational instititutions run by different Jain trusts in various states of the country. FJEI (Federation of Jain Educational Institutes) formed in 2002 is a unique body having the spred across the country. The schools which are part of this network are virtually educational laboratories where many of the innovations are being tested, perfected and then rolledout in other schools and upscaled at national level.

Looking back, Mr. Muttha, who is otherwise a very humble person must be feeling very satisfied and proud that the seeds he has sown has grown and spread into a big banyan tree of BJS having several hundred branches all over the country doing excellent and commendable work in the areas of education, natural disasters and social service with innumerable, innovative and socially meaningful programs whose benefits are shared by millions of people transcending caste, creed, religion and region. He believes, and rightly so that his strength and the strength of the oranization lies in the dedication and the motto of selfless service of thousands of karykartas and Padadhikaris ( i.e volunteers and office bearers) of BJS. These people are the foundation of the organization on which the beckoning light house is standing strong and erect.

And now, Mr. Muttha has finally arrived at his destination. He thinks that what ultimately matters in the life of an individual and what builds the society are the set of values one cherishes and imbibes. Mulyavardhan or the program of peace and moral value education is his dream project. The program is in its infancy, has been just launched in the Patoda Taluka of Beed district (July 2009). He is tirelessly working and devoting all his time, energy and resources for the success of this very ambitious program, because he rightly thinks this is the key which will unleash all the positive energies of the Indian society and the Nation which aspires to be a leading world power; world power with a difference.