Even before Swami Vivekananda started the Belur Math, he wanted to establish a Math for women with the Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi as its centre. However, it was during the Holy Mother's Birth Centenary in 1954, that Sri Sarada Math came into existence. In 1960, the Trustees of Sri Sarada Math founded the Ramakrishna Sarada Mission Association with the object of propagating educational, cultural, charitable, medical and similar activities among women and children. Through the headquarters at Dakshineswar, Calcutta, and its branch centres in different parts of India, the Ramakrishna Sarada Mission seeks to serve women and children in all possible ways, irrespective of caste, creed, colour and nationality. At present the Math and the Mission run about 25 centres in different parts of India and also abroad.
Ramakrishna Sarada Mission Vivekananda Vidyabhavan (established 1961) was the first educational institution started by the Ramakrishna Sarada Mission. What began as a humble effort to carry out Swami Vivekananda's vision , housed in a one-roomed makeshift structure with thirty one students and a handful of young, idealistic and enthusiastic teachers and monastic members, has resulted in one of the premier women's institutions of the state, and ranks among the best institutions under the West Bengal State University.
