Thako Devi Jogendra Bhagat Sewa Trust (TJB Sewa Trust)

A family philanthropic trust founded by Jogendra Bhagat and Thako Devi Jogendra Bhagat, committed to donating their family's assets entirely to social work in Saptari. Now widely regarded as one of the most exemplary trusts of its kind in Nepal, not just Saptari, its institutions span health, education, emergency services and culture across Rajbiraj, Rupani, Shambhunath and Bishnupur.

The convener's role: Sanjog Dev served as the Trust's acting president in 2022, leading it through the Rupani hospital's inauguration, and remains engaged in its overall planning and development, one of the previous works Saptari Next builds upon.

Institutions built or supported by the Trust

At Madhesh Pradesh Police Hospital in Rupani, the Trust donated 2 bigha of land and constructed an 18,000 sq ft hospital building, handing it over to Nepal Police in 2072 BS along with NPR 2.5 lakh in cash and equipment; it also built the 8,400 sq ft staff quarters. The hospital now runs 15 beds with ambulance service, 24-hour emergency care, X-ray and thyroid/cholesterol/sugar testing, staffed by 52 people including three consultant doctors, and was formally inaugurated in 2022.

In Rajbiraj, the Trust donated land on Gajendra Narayan Singh Road, Ward 3, for the ThakoDeviJogendraBhagat Lions Club ENT Hospital, built jointly with the Lions Club of Saptari to serve ear, nose and throat patients who previously had to travel to Dharan, Birgunj, Janakpur or Kathmandu.

The Trust spent NPR 51 lakh on physical infrastructure for the Rajdevi ThakoDevi Jogendra Bhagat Secondary School in Rajbiraj, built in 2044 BS, and in Shambhunath handed 8 bigha 11 kattha of land to the Armed Police Force in 2072 BS (with a further 3 bigha added later) to build the Nepal APF ThakoDevi Jogendra Bhagat School, now an NPR 18-crore-plus campus. That school opened in 2079 BS with 162 students across grades 4 to 6, reserves 40% of its seats for the general public alongside APF families, and receives full scholarships for two underprivileged students a year, funded by the Trust.

Jogendra Bhagat, a former chairman and vice-chairman of Saptari Red Cross, contributed NPR 21 lakh in 2053 BS toward the Nepal Red Cross Society's Saptari Bhawan and has supported it financially ever since; Saptari Red Cross today runs 16 sub-branches, 2 support committees and roughly 4,000 active members. The Trust has also donated 3 kattha of land on the Shambhunath-7, Kathauna highway for the Hindi Sahitya Bhawan, a literature building with a library intended for gatherings, seminars and study.

Future plans

The Trust has announced plans to convert the Bhagat family's own Rajbiraj residence into a dharmashala once their full estate passes to the Trust, and to run an ambulance service reaching Rupani, Bishnupur and Shambhunath municipalities.

Setubandh — सेतुबन्ध

Bridging hearts and minds together — a civic society movement

Setubandh is a civic society movement that connects Nepal's intellectuals and leading minds in shaping the destiny of the nation together. As part of the campaign, convener Sanjog Dev travelled to about 57 districts of Nepal alongside his mentor Anand Aditya, building the nationwide network of relationships and civic method that Saptari Next now applies at district scale. Setubandh is a partner organisation of Saptari Next.

Before it had a name, it had a beginning: pre-Setubandh conversations in Siraha with several collaborators no longer living today, time in the field with the late Pradeep Giri, and the first Setubandh event held in Rajbiraj, from which the movement grew into meetings with senior valuators, education experts and the country's finance advisor, sessions with Shailendra ji and Abhinav Chaudhary, and Saptari's education and diplomacy voices playing on the global stage. The fuller field record of this journey is archived under Resources below.