Dr. Dwijendranath Moitra and Bangiya Hitasadhan Mandali

Dwijendranath Maitra  (1878 – 1950) was son of Lokenath Maitra, who hailed from Rajshahi, now in Bangladesh. Lokenath Maitra had married Jagattarini in an inter-caste widow remarriage, a daring task in those days.

In 1902, he stood first in the M.B. (Bachelor of Medicine) examination from Medical College and was the first Indian to be appointed house surgeon in Mayo Hospital. In 1912, he went to England and America to get himself acquainted with the latest developments in medicine and surgery. There he met Rabindranath Tagore. He discussed about the poet with others
He travelled to the USA with Rabindranath Tagore.
He was a member of Sukumar Ray's Monday Club, which had such noted personalities as Satyendranath Dutta, Suniti Kumar Chaterjee, Atul Prasad Sen, Kalidas Nag, Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis and Prabhat Kumar Mukhopdhyay as members.
In 1915, he established the Bengal Social Service League. It was initially named Bangiya Hitasadhan Mandali. Possibly the oldest secular social welfare organisation, Rabindranath Tagore was president of this organisation for many years. Jnananjan Niyogi served as its secretary. Amongst others involved in it was Nishi Kanta Bose, a renowned social worker.
He was a pioneer in the use of audio-visual methods for the education of adults. For the training of workers engaged in the field of social welfare, he opened the School of Popular Education in 1924. He set up the Fellowship Club for the enhancement of communal harmony.
In 1930, he visited the Soviet Union to gain first hand experience about community development programmes undertaken in that country. He visited China and Japan in 1934.
He established Srinanda, in 1944, for the education of adult women. Cultural Fellowship with foreign countries is another organisation he set up. Many of his speeches were published in the form of booklets.
His son, Satyen Maitra, is a well-known educationist and social worker.
The proposal of the formation of "Bangiya Hitasadhan Mandali" was discussed by Dr.Dwijendranath Moitra for long time. On 26th Jan a seminar was arranged by "Sadharan Brahmo Samaj" on the subject "Prachar O Seba". It was decided there in the seminar that the peoples welfare was their main purpose.
"Bangiya Hitasadhan Mandali" was first fotmed here with 42 members amongst the 46 present in the seminar. At the proposal of Pandit Sitanath Tattwabhushan and supported by all present,  Dr. Moitra was elected as the secretary of the Mandali.