Education where the students are
Every college the trust has opened teaches a qualification that would otherwise mean leaving the district. That is the whole design: the campus went to the students rather than the other way round.
About the trust
Built for the children of this coast
V. M. Patil Krushi Pratishthan is an educational trust founded in 2008 at Asangaon, Taluka Dahanu, District Palghar, Maharashtra. It runs five colleges — design, pharmacy, agriculture, hospitality and law — from a single campus, the Gurukul Shikshan Sankul, and was set up for the education of tribal, farming and fishing-community children of the Palghar coast.
V. M. Patil Krushi Pratishthan was established in 2008 by Mr. Milind Madhukar Patil and Mr. Vikas Madhukar Patil, with the ideal development of poor and tribal children in mind.
Dahanu taluka is a coastal belt of chikoo orchards, paddy and fishing villages. Families here have long had to choose between keeping their children at home and sending them to Mumbai or Vapi for anything past school. The trust was formed to remove that choice, and thousands of students from fishing, farming and tribal communities have passed through it since.
It began with a single agriculture polytechnic, Krishi Tantra Niketan, in 2008. Design teaching followed, then the pharmacy college and the law college. Each was added to the same ground at Asangaon rather than to an easier site, so that a student can move between a library, a hostel, a workshop and a laboratory without leaving the campus.
The trust credits its foundation to the efforts of the Patil family, and in particular to Shri. Madhukar Narayan Patil and Mrs. Manini Madhukar Patil. Its stated commitment is to an atmosphere in which the zest for learning skills thrives, and in which students are trained not only to be professionals but to be people of values and social awareness.
Mr. Milind Madhukar Patil
Chairman & Co-founder
Mr. Vikas Madhukar Patil
Vice Chairman & Co-founder
वि. म. पाटील कृषी प्रतिष्ठान
The trust is known locally by its Marathi name, and much of its correspondence and public recognition is in Marathi.
- Founded
- 2008Founded
- Colleges on one campus
- 5Colleges on one campus
- Farmers served by the soil lab
- 25,000+Farmers served by the soil lab
- Students placed
- 1,000+Students placed
How it works
Three things the trust holds to
Skills, not only certificates
Studios, workshops, laboratories, an orchard and a nursery are all on site. Students spend their time making, testing and growing things, not only reading about them.
The village is part of the campus
The soil laboratory, the nursery, the ripening chamber and the garment training exist for farmers and women who are not enrolled anywhere. The trust counts them as its work too.
History
How the campus grew
- 2008
The trust is founded
Milind Patil and Vikas Patil establish V. M. Patil Krushi Pratishthan for the education of poor and tribal children of the Dahanu coast.
- 2008
Krishi Tantra Niketan opens
The agriculture polytechnic becomes the trust’s first institution, teaching a three-year Diploma in Agriculture affiliated to Dr. Balasaheb Sawant Konkan Krishi Vidyapeeth, Dapoli.
- 2014
Design education arrives
Design teaching begins on campus under S.N.D.T. Women’s University, opening a professional route for women from the surrounding villages.
- 2017
S.P. College of B.Design
The trust opens the eighth girls’ Bachelor of Design college in the country, a four-year degree affiliated to S.N.D.T. Women’s University.
- Today
Five colleges, one campus
Design, pharmacy, agriculture, hospitality and law are taught side by side at the Gurukul Shikshan Sankul, alongside the trust’s soil laboratory and community programmes.
Institutions