Overview

The Charutar Arogya Mandal was formed in 1972 as a non-profit Trust and a Society to work in the area of health care and education. The Founder Chairman, Dr H M Patel – the former Finance and Home Minister, an astute academician and a Philanthropist, led the Institution with a legacy that still prevails - “ Solace for the Suffering”. The dictum is very much the beginning and the conclusion of all endeavors we take up, driving our efforts in healthcare, education, research and community health.  The Trust’s main objective, as enshrined in its Constitution, is to make healthcare facilities accessible and affordable to the people of Gujarat.

In 2019, the Government of Gujarat conferred upon the status of a Private University and the BHAIKAKA UNIVERSITY commenced under the State Private University Act 2009. Charutar Arogya Mandal now acts as the supporting body to the University.

The University is named after an illustrious and accomplished academician, Shri Bhailalbhai Patel, fondly known as Bhaikaka was instrumental in setting up Vallabh Vidyanagar, the education hub of the rural Charutar region – the central belt from Ahmedabad to Baroda in the state – to be precise.

Know Shri Bhailalbhai Patel – Bhaikaka

Born on 7 June 1888 at Sarsa in the Anand District of Gujarat state, Bhaikaka was a civil engineer from the University of Pune. He began his career in engineering as a Supervisor in Mehsana and gradually rose to become an Executive Engineer for Government. He sought an early retirement from there in 1940 and joined Ahmedabad Municipality where he worked till 1942. He was appointed as Chairman of Charotar Education Society in Anand, a few years before moving on to what we now know as the township of Vallabh Vidyanagar on 3 March 1946. Bhaikaka began to work on a plan together with Shri Bhikhabhai Patel, a dedicated and farsighted educationist, who shared Bhaikaka’s vision, and both of them dedicated themselves to the vision of the development of Vallabh Vidyanagar – an educational township. He played a pivotal role in setting up Sardar Patel University in 1968 and was also the first Vice Chancellor of this rural University.  He was awarded the degree of Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa) by the university he founded at its special convocation on 12 November 1959. He was elected to the Gujarat Legislative Assembly in 1962 and as Leader of the Opposition in it. Bhaikaka breathed his last in Ahmedabad on 31 March 1970 after a brief illness but was cremated in Vallabh Vidyanagar as per his expressed wish during his lifetime.