Entry Service

Donald “Don” Kelman (91) passed away on 30 January 2025 at his home in the Prarthana Community in Auroville. He had valiantly fought dementia for several years with the support of his loved ones and a community of dear friends.

For years, our annual population review was a prosaic, statistically-detailed piece, with musings on which nationals were moving to Auroville in increasing or decreasing numbers.

The RA-WCom shared with the community a legal opinion on the functioning and validity of the “Admissions Committee” (also known as “Entry Board”) constituted by the Residents’ Assembly under the Auroville Foundation (Admission and Termination of Persons in the Register of Residents) Regulations 2020 (“2020 Regulations”) in the light of the enactment of the Auroville Foundation (Admission and Termination of Persons in the Register of Residents) Regulations 2023 and the stay granted against the same by the Madras High Court via order dated on 23.2.2024.

Further to the High Court ordered interim stay on the AVFO’s Auroville Foundation (Admission and Termination of Persons in the Register of Residents) Regulations 2023, [see AVToday 415, March 2024], the Auroville Entry Board selected by the Residents’ Assembly informed the community that it will not process new applications, but will continue to take care of existing Newcomer processes.

The Entry Service clarified that certain statements made by the AVFO Working Committee at the open meeting (see above) were incorrect. It was said that the Entry Board is maintaining a ‘blacklist’, of Applicants / Newcomers, and that emails asking for clarification were not being answered.

A new Auroville Youth Integration programme has been developed by the YouthLink team for ‘Children of Aurovilians’ between the ages of 16 and 25.

AVYI was an amazing experience. I learnt so much more than I expected. All the organisers and participants were amazing, and I had so much fun.

One of the powers of the Residents' Assembly, says the Auroville Foundation Act, is to allow the admission or cause the termination of persons in the Register of Residents in accordance with Regulations.

Forest was born and raised in the countryside outside of Toronto, Canada. He has recently chosen Auroville as his future home and is planning to start his Newcomer process shortly.

The Entry Service reported that during the entire lockdown period it was fully engaged in discharging its duties. Since June 2020, 111 Newcomers have been confirmed as Aurovilians and 49 new applicants were processed to start their Newcomer process.

Auroville is seeing an increase in bureaucracy. The Funds and Assets Management Committee proposes to enlarge its 12-page Code of Conduct for trusts and units of the Auroville Foundation to a 40-page document: the Town Development Council has come up with an empanelment process for contractors in Auroville and has initiated a process for how to deal with people who build without building permissions; the Entry Board is facing official “Auroville Foundation (Admission and termination of Persons in the register of residents) Regulations 2020; and there is an increasing ‘imposition’ of regulations from outside Auroville.

On September 23, 2017, a revised Entry Policy was ratified by the Residents Assembly. Of the 222 Residents who participated in the decision-making process, 85% agreed with the new policy.

The new Entry Policy approved in 2016 has been put on hold. An Entry Task Force has been created to work towards the resolution of the concerns that have been expressed within the community about the way it was being implemented.

The result of the U.S. election generated some interesting responses. One of these was a perceptive essay written by the economist, Charles Eisenstein, called “The election of hate, grief and a new story”.

On September 26th, Aurovilian Major General Krishna Tewari (ret’d.) passed away in his house at Auromodèle surrounded by his family and friends, at the age of 94.

The Auroville Council and Working Committee, concerned that feedback on those who wish to join the community cannot be based on personal feelings of likes and dislikes, and only on truth and accuracy of experience, have decided to henceforth use a “feedback form”.

Two of the major challenges facing the community at present are a fragile economy and a severe lack of low-priced accommodation. Clearly, the two are interlinked.