Babar Ali

Babar Ali was just nine when he started his own school and became the
youngest headmaster of the world. Every day he would come back from
school and start teaching what he had learnt in school that day to other
kids who did not get an opportunity to attend school. Today, Babar Ali is
21 and pursuing a Masters of Arts degree. His school has over 300
students with six full time teachers and 10 volunteers who contribute to
his school on a regular basis.

Krupali Bidaye
Krupali, a volunteer for more than 15 years, currently handles the
Transgender persons’ portfolio at the Social Inclusion Task Force, Govt.
of Chhattisgarh. She is responsible for the conceptualization of Joy for
All – an initiative of Love for the Hijra and Transgender Community. In
2016, she organized the Trans and Hijra Empowerment Mela, the first of
its kind pioneering attempt to encourage entrepreneurship among the
transgender community across India.

Jasper Paul
Jasper, through his volunteering efforts, has established a shelter for the
elderly poor. He oversees the welfare of over 130 destitute members in
terms of medical care, food, emotional support as well as of those
working under him. He has helped rescue over 500 people from the
streets of Hyderabad and has also helped unite over 50 people with
their family members.

Chinu Kwatra
Chinu Kwatra leads the ‘Roti Ghar’ project started by the Khushiyaan
Foundation in December 2017 which gives under privileged children a
place to stay, provides them fresh home cooked food and helps them to
fulfil their dreams. They started out with only five kids as part of the
Roti Ghar project which now provides to over 1100 children and is
steadily growing.

Rajarshi Debnath
Rajarshi Debnath, a student started working to fight against Children
Sexual Abuse by teaching them about ‘good touch and bad touch’ and
encouraging parents to speak out to “break the silence” and “speak
out”. He is the founder and executive team head of “Project
Baalrakshak” and is associated with CRY. With no monetary support,
Rajarshi has covered 16 schools and has had 70 sessions with children
and 28 sessions with parents so far.
Jiaul Islam
Jiaul Islam, a national UN Volunteer, has been a part of several projects
across Tripura from building roads in flood-affected regions and building
community halls in villages to holding counselling sessions in high
schools. One programme that was of particular significance involved
conducting HIV/AIDS awareness workshops across eight districts in the
state as the state had been failing to control the spread of HIV/AIDS, to
the extent that the prevalence of the disease in Tripura had surpassed
the national prevalence rate.

Joseph Santhumary Parthiban

Joseph Santhumary Parthiban is a revolutionary banker who introduced
the habit of saving among hawkers and beggars in Delhi and Tamil
Nadu, certain that savings accounts in a bank would give them security
and self-respect. Banking for Parthiban is not about money or sitting in
office and signing papers. It is a medium to change lives. From
inculcating the habit of saving among the poorest of poor and helping
them open a bank account, this man has set them free from the high
interest rates of private money lenders and the vicious cycle of debt.
Robin Chaurasiya
An ex-US military officer, Chaurasiya is now helping trafficked girls in
Mumbai slums escape the sex trade, heal, achieve a good education,
and become self-supporting. She started an NGO, Kranti, working for
women’s rights by providing a healing home, comprehensive education
and personalized opportunities to empower and equip India’s trafficked
girls, sex workers, and otherwise socially disadvantaged young women.

Safeena Husain
Husain has been working in the field of girls’ education in India. She
started an initiative, ‘Educate Girls’ in Rajasthan to get as many girls as
possible into school so they can benefit from a good education, improve
their lives and become an asset to their communities. Her hard work
and dedication has led to a huge increase in the number of schools,
which rose from 500 to 4425 in a time span of just five years.

Akshai Abraham
This sports lover is helping marginalized children reach their true
potential with the help of sports, helping them to grow into responsible
and contributing members of the society. His initiative, KHEL, partners
with organizations working with orphans, street children, slum children,
village children, children in shelters and children of migrant and
domestic labour and engages them. He also makes the kids aware of
topics like child sexual abuse, civic responsibility, substance abuse and
healthy living. And all of the serious talk is made fun through sports.
Faith Gonsalves
She has brought together children who have been abused or have
suffered trauma to form a music group called Music Basti. The initiative
has acted as a great tool to build confidence and self-worth. Gonsalves
has worked with over 400 children and 500 volunteers in Delhi.

Avelino de Sa
Quite often we see incidents where the differently-abled are deprived
of a good career opportunity in spite of having the appropriate
qualification. Avelino sets an example for all those who want to defeat
their disability and get the top positions in their chosen fields. Born
with cerebral palsy, Avelino never let this disability come in his away. He
became a certified investment consultant and started an association
called DRAG to help address the issues of the disabled. He has been
self-employed for over 12 years now and has over 100 clients.

Shachi Singh
When Shachi Singh saw a poor boy on a railway station, she decided to
help all those kids who are living on streets, spending their days doing
small-time odd jobs to earn their daily bread and butter. She started an
organization, Ehsaas, which caters to the needs of such children. Thanks
to her hard work, Lucknow station is now free of child labour. Her
efforts made the government create child-friendly booths for lost
children across 72 districts of Uttar Pradesh.

Shweta Chari
Old toys might not be useful to us anymore, they could still give
immense joy to someone on the streets. Shweta Chari started an
initiative, Toybank, with a vision to place a toy in the hands of every
child in India. Chari started wrapping the donated toys and gave them
to those who could not afford them. Having spread smiles on over 8,000
faces, Chari continues to do her bit to make the lives of these small kids
a little better.

Mukund BS
He has been creating affordable computers from scrap. Targeting the
economically weaker sections of the community as customers, Mukund
has created over 10,000 computers from scrap. Not only this, they also
provide free after-sale service for these machines for one year. At a time
when the computer has become almost a necessity, Mukund is making
a huge contribution in the field where those who need the machine but
can’t afford it now have an opportunity to own one.