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Updated: Oct 16, 2019 12:57 IST

The growth of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh has been the fastest-ever since 2010 with nearly 20,000 new shakhas (RSS camps) added over the last 9 years, a senior RSS office-bearer said on Wednesday.

“Since 2010, we have added 19,584 new shakhas, the highest growth in the history of RSS. We have now over 57,000 shakhas in the country. Though it is not easy to organise a shakhas considering the paucity of time that people have, we added about 6,000 new shakhas between 2010 and 2014. This is about 1,500 new shakhas every year,” said Manmohan Vaidya joint general secretary to stress the Sangh’s growth when the BJP was out of power.

Vaidya was speaking to the Press just before the start of the three-day meeting of Akhila Bharatiya Karyakari Mandal, the highest policy-making body of RSS.

Vaidya also underscored that the age profile of RSS members had also declined. Sixty per cent of the RSS shakhas comprise school and college students. Nearly 29 per cent of the shakhas have young businessmen and traders.

“There is a lot of interest about the RSS. When we started the ‘Join RSS’ section in the official website of RSS in 2013, we got 28,843 requests. This year alone, we received 1.03 lakh requests to join the RSS till September-end,” he said.

Vaidya said the organisation was now trying to undertake social change and working in over 5,000 villages where it is stressing on the merits of nuclear family and ending untouchability. “We have seen good results in at least 500 of these villages,” he said.

Reacting to a question on Ram temple in Ayodhya, Vaidya said it was a matter of faith for the entire Hindu community. To another question on repeal of Article 370, Vaidya said a private members Bill brought in the Lok Sabha in 1994 to end Article 370 was unanimously supported by all parties. A Congress government led by PV Narasimha Rao was then in power, he said.