કવિ: krsfgrassyenchanting

According to UNICEF’s estimates, India is home to roughly  2.89 crore  orphaned, abandoned, and street-living children. These children are dangerously vulnerable to being pulled into begging rings, bonded labour, various crimes, and human trafficking. Deprived of education, their childhoods are stolen from them, and their futures are pushed into darkness.

Alongside this, India has an estimated  1.8 crore  extremely destitute and homeless people — men and women living on streets and in public spaces without any care or support. They are among our country’s most overlooked citizens, living without basic human dignity while facing numerous physical and mental hardships.

In response to this deeply serious situation, Dr. K. R. Shroff Foundation (KRSF), together with Pune’s  Maza Ghar Foundation , is undertaking a new initiative: building a mega dignity and empowerment campus near Lonavala, close to Pune. This campus will include a school, a hospital, and every necessary facility — designed to provide safe and dignified lives to an estimated  4,200 beneficiaries .

The purpose of this campus is to offer helpless, destitute people care, rehabilitation, and long-term support with genuine humanity and dignity — and, at the same time, to help orphaned and street children become self-reliant through education and vocational training, so they can rejoin mainstream society with pride and dignity. This effort aims to mark the beginning of hope, self-reliance, and lasting positive change for generations to come.

Shree Pragnachakshu Mahila Seva Kunj is an organisation doing important, selfless work in education, training, and rehabilitation for blind women and women from underprivileged backgrounds. What sets this organisation apart is its guiding philosophy: instead of keeping women dependent on sympathy alone, it equips them with the skills and opportunities they need to stand on their own feet.

Through computer training, handicrafts, and various self-employment training programmes, the women here build self-confidence and self-respect — qualities that let them live dignified lives within their communities.

KRSF’s involvement here goes beyond financial support alone. To help the organisation grow sustainably over the long term, we provide guidance, planning, and direction — infrastructure development, modern training facilities, and the equipment needed to strengthen the institution further. For KRSF, this partnership isn’t a matter of obligation. It’s a trust-based collaboration, where both sides move forward together.

When blind women build their own income through education and training, the impact reaches well beyond their individual lives. That income supports their families, strengthens their children’s futures, and spreads a message of self-reliance through the wider community. The self-confidence that grows in these women becomes a genuinely positive force for change — one KRSF has been proud to keep encouraging.

Given how quickly technology and employment opportunities are changing, equipping blind women with modern skills has become more important than ever. In this direction, KRSF is working to connect the organisation with new training methods, digital tools, and market access — so that after training, the women have the right markets, the right guidance, and fair value for their work.

For KRSF, this entire effort reflects a deep social commitment. Understanding an organisation’s real needs and offering the right support at the right time — that’s our approach. This philosophy makes the collaboration more effective and its impact longer-lasting. When service is carried out with understanding, empathy, and cooperation — and when even a blind daughter can cook a meal without hesitation — its value multiplies many times over.

Going forward, KRSF will continue standing shoulder to shoulder with Shree Pragnachakshu Mahila Seva Kunj. With the right support and guidance, our shared goal is to help build an empowered, self-reliant society — one small, well-directed step at a time.

KRSF — Dr. K. R. Shroff Foundation — remains committed to empowering society’s most vulnerable and overlooked communities. Our belief is simple: true social service isn’t limited to financial support alone. Direction, guidance, and human empathy matter just as much. With this belief, KRSF continues to work alongside many social organisations, striving for positive, lasting change in society.

There’s an old saying: someone who strays in the morning but comes home by evening was never really “lost” at all. It could have been written for Chandubhai.

Chandubhai is one of our supplementary teachers in Chambhadiya village, Gadhda taluka. He joined KRSF before the pandemic, and it didn’t take long for him to become the kind of teacher every child hopes for — the one who makes reading, writing and arithmetic feel less like chores and more like discovery, while quietly weaving in lessons on hygiene and health along the way. Children loved how he taught, as much as what he taught.

Then COVID hit, and like so many people during that period, Chandubhai found himself unsettled. He worried — reasonably — about what the future held, and for personal reasons, he stepped away to try something else.

It didn’t fit. From his very first day at the new job, the working style and the rules felt wrong. Discontent turned into restlessness, and restlessness turned into a nagging question that wouldn’t leave him alone: what if he went back, and there was nothing to go back to? Even though his heart clearly wasn’t in the new work, he kept at it for a while, unsure of his next move.

Eventually, he found the courage to be honest. He spoke openly with our cluster head about what he was feeling. We listened — really listened — and welcomed him back with trust and warmth, no hard feelings attached.

The Chandubhai who returned was a different, energized version of himself. New enthusiasm, new drive, real grit. His sense of ownership over his work, and over the children he taught, earned him a promotion to Team Leader.

He has a philosophy about it now: KRSF’s rules, discipline, and core values might look, at first glance, like a chain — something restrictive. But in practice, he says, that “chain” doesn’t bind a person down. It shapes them, in the same way values shape a person’s overall growth — and that growth strengthens the future of the children too.

For our team, his journey is a source of quiet pride. It’s proof that KRSF’s work was never only about hitting project targets. It’s about a structure — built on transparency and values — where every individual’s growth is placed right at the centre, alongside the children’s.