The Ruchika Social Service Organization started its program in April 1985 for children in and around the railway station with a station platform education center and gradually moved on to cover related facets like nutrition, medical and maternal care, hygiene, personal cleanliness, sponsorship of girls to the school, Vocational training to the unemployed disadvantaged slum youths, awareness of HIV/AIDS among the slum/street adolescents, providing 24 hrs telephonic outreach for children in distress and crisis, shelter for the homeless/orphan children, water and sanitation program for slum community etc. The ideology and overwhelming credo is "if the child cannot come to the school then the school must go to the child"
The need was felt for such an organization in Bhubaneswar as the city had attracted a large number of subsistence level families from the hinterland, who come to the city in search of work. The platform (station) school as it popularly came to be known, started spontaneously and almost over-night. The program taught the street children and the children of platform dwellers in so meaningful and significant a manner that within a span of twenty five years it has grown to provide a wide network of services in the neighborhood areas, addressing a widening ambit of pressing needs. Having started with eleven children of station dwellers, they are today able to contact and reach out to over 6000 under- privileged children with education every day and touch over 50,000 community members while addressing various developmental issues and problems.
Advance opportunities for underprivileged children through education to
i. create a society free of child labour , destitution, exploitation and abandonment;
ii. equip children with the knowledge necessary to become active participants and positive contributors to their communities and
iii. provide all children with a joyful and creative school atmosphere that incorporates the education and skills relevant to a meaningful and dignified existence.
To build a child-friendly society where a child is considered as the greatest asset of mankind, where all the human rights would be ensured for each child and where all children get the best possible environment in which they can grow without any obstruction or impediment.