Vivekananda Sevakendra-O-Sishu Uddyan (VSSU), a registered society under West Bengal Societies Registration Act 1961, has come a long way since its humble beginnings as a local organization in 1983. Founded by Sri Kapilananda Mondal, VSSU began by providing basic social development programs to the local community through education, environment and healthcare endeavors.

VSSU operates on the philosophy that the community itself possesses the resources for growth and development; however, they lack the mechanisms to harness these resources themselves. Thus to sustainably support social development activities financially, VSSU started individual micro finance programs in 1994. Due to rapid growth of the microfinance programs, in 1997 "Swanirbhar Gosthi" was formally established to provide 'Savings based Credit' to the individuals. 'Ashok Nilay', a separate registered society, was formed in 2003 to facilitate the community development programs of VSSU, which include a crèche program, primary school and scholarship support, as well as healthcare, sanitation and social forestry programs.

Until 2001, VSSU had accepted no external funding from outside, as it was intent on proving that community development could come from the community resources alone, rather than from outside funding. In recent years, VSSU has expanded its programs and sources of funds in order increase its impact on the local community. To this end, VSSU has partnered with several other organizations in order to achieve this.

The Oceanic Library, collaboration between VSSU and READ Global, USA is a major initiative for the educational benefit of the community and was established in early 2008 as a separate entity.

In the same year, under the banner of 'Ashok Nilay', Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti (JNVS) which is under the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Govt. of India was invited to set up J.N.V. (high school) for the district of South 24 Parganas in Ashok Nilay.

VSSU microfinance is currently working with SIDBI, AXIS bank, HDFC, SBI and other microfinance organizations to provide more loan services to the community. VSSU also has a planned collaboration with BRAC, Bangladesh to provide technical assistance to upscale our microfinance operations.

Through 25 years of experience, VSSU has learnt that job creation and livelihood training is also important for economic development and empowerment of the community. Therefore to create employment opportunities for the community VSSU is preparing to start a sustainable livelihood program, Jeebika Foundation, which is again a proposed separate registered society. Agricultural projects planned under Jeebika have so far received collaborative support from the World Bank and the University of Agricultural Sciences in Bangalore.

A proposed Bachelor of Education College is another one of the most important plans of VSSU in near future.