Rotary Club Delhi Central was formed on May 23, 1975, when five Gentlemen – Mr. O.P. Jain, Mr. Jaswant Rai, Mr. R.C. Jain, Mr. V.K. Verma and Mr. C. Aggarwal met at Hotel Oberoi Inter Continental. Rotary Club Delhi North sponsored the Club and it received its Charter from District Governor Rtn. M.L. Manchanda. Rtn. O.P. Jain was the Charter President of the Club for barely two months. At that time our Club was in RI District 310, which stretched from Srinagar in west to Moradabad in U.P. The district comprised the states of Jammu & Kashmir, Pubjab , Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Western UP.
The charter members were Late PP Rtn. Jaswant Rai, PP Rtn Rakesh Jain, Rtn. Suresh C. Jain, PP Rtn. (Dr) Ravinder Kakar and Rtn. Vinod Jain along with the above gentlemen in those early years our club meetings were held at Hotel Oberoi Intercontinental.
At the installation function of President Late Rtn. Jaswant Rai held on July 26, 1976, the Hon’ble President of India, Mr. Fakruddin Ahmed, was the chief guest on the occasion. It was reckoned as the first occasion in the history of the Rotary movement that the head of the country had graced any function organized by any single Rotary Club.
In the very first year of its existence, our Club formed a Rotaract Club which received its charter in November 1976, when our chief guest on the occasion was then Union Minister of Information, and former Prime Minister Mr. Inder Kumar Gujral.
In 1977 this district was bifurcated into two districts-309 and 310. The clubs of Delhi were divided between the two districts. Rotary Clubs of Delhi North, Delhi University, Delhi Central and Delhi Sahdara were placed in RI District 310 while the remaining clubs Delhi, Delhi South, Delhi Mid-Town, etc. were included in District 309.
During 1984-85 all the clubs of Delhi were placed in one district, i.e. RI District 301, which was created on the reorganization of all the districts in India. Later on this district was renumbered as 3010 without any changes in its boundaries.
Rotary Club of Delhi Central was barely two years old when it took upon itself the task of organizing District Conference of RI District 310 in February 1978 under the dynamic leadership of its President Rtn. Chakradhari Aggarwal. This conference was held in Vigyan Bhawan and was hailed as one of the most successful district conference. The conference was inaugurated by His Holiness Maharishi Mahesh Yogi who especially came to India in his chartered flight from the US. Rtn. Harish C. Malhotra, who is now a member of our Club, was elected District Governor Nominee at this very district meet.
To manage our SERVICE TO HUMANITY PROJECTS our club formed the Rotary Delhi Central Charitable Trust on 25th June 1981 and the Founder Members were (Late) PP Rtn. J.K. Singal, (Late) PP Rtn. J.M.L. Tambi, PP Rtn. Rakesh Jain, PP Rtn. S.R. Khurana and all members of our club are enrolled as Life Members of the Trust till they retain the membership of our club.
In the Year 1988, our club supported by our trust took up the prestigious project of making Artificial limbs based on Jaipur Foot Technology under the banner of Rotary Vikalang Kendra (RVK) now located at 42-X, Karkardooma Institutional Area, Delhi. The Artificial limbs are made to specific size and requirement of the disabled. It has received appreciation not only in the district but also in the Rotary world as successive RI Presidents have not only visited this project but have appreciated in their speeches and messages.
In the beginning RVK was started in a small rented building in Paharganj and later on RVK was shifted to Lok Nayak Jain Prakash Hospital in the Serai Building and later after few years we were allotted a plot in Karkardooma Institutional Area where we have constructed our building of 5 Floors housing the manufacture of limbs, our Physiotherapy, Doctor’s chamber, Board room and an Auditorium for meeting and conferences.
In 1979 we started our Eye Bank at the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital duly assisted by the Eye department of SGRH. Our member who initiated this project was eminent Late Dr. S.R.K. Malik and the project is still running and managed by the Eye department of SGRH with some regular financial help from our club.
Several other outstanding achievements and awards have been received by our club all these years and several projects have also been initiated in the field of Water & Hygiene, Vocational Guidance, Gift of Life, Club Foot Clinic & Medical Camps.
We have our own Mobile limb making workshop and active Interact and Rotaract Clubs.