In 1955, the great visionary Prabhat
Rainjan Sarkar, also known as Shrii
Shrii Anandamurti, founded the
socio-spiritual organization Ananda
Marga to promote self-realization and
service to humanity.
In 1965, he founded the Women’s Welfare
Department (WWD) – run exclusively by
women – so they could have their own
structure within the greater organization.
The purpose was to work for the socioeconomic and personal wellbeing of
women.
Today, WWD is an international, voluntary,
service organization active in over 80
countries. It is managed by missionary
workers and local volunteers who focus
not only on the wellbeing of women and
children, but also society in general.
The missionary workers receive specialized
training in advanced yoga and meditation
techniques with the dual purpose of
nurturing their own inner potential and
providing tools for other women to do the
same.
Many of the volunteers and missionary
workers receive Neohumanist Education
training, which is a philosophy that
seeks to implement a new vision of
holistic education. These women carry
that philosophy back to their respective
projects and seek to imbue that philosophy
in all they do. For instance, the missionary
workers are also vegetarians who
promote a healthy lifestyle and are deeply
committed to supporting the environment.
On the 4th of August 1978 P.R. Sarkar
founded Girls Prout (GP) in Patna, Bihar,
India and named its global headquarters in
Sweden. GP is the female wing of Proutist
Universal and was created to address
the specific needs of women and girls.
Today it is an international movement with
chapters all over the world.
Some of its objectives include:
• Programs for women & girls
to achieve equal rights and
opportunities with men
• Propagating and implementing
the socio-economic programs of
Prout amongst women
• Fighting all sorts of suppression
of women, particularly poverty,
sexism, racism, and classism.
Founder of Ananda Marga