Vinayak Lohani (Hindi: विनायक लोहनी,Bengali: বিনায়ক লোহনী) is the founder of Parivaar, a humanitarian institution based in West Bengal.^[1] He, inspired by the spiritual and humanistic ideals of Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda, decided to devote his entire life to serving the ‘Divine in Man’ as taught by Swami Vivekananda.^[2][3][4][5]

Background, early life and education

Vinayak Lohani was born in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh and did his schooling there. His family roots are from Almora district of Kumaon region in Uttarakhand. He went to IIT Kharagpur to do his B.Tech and thereafter worked for Infosys for a year. In 2001, he joined IIM Calcutta to do his MBA.^[6][7]

Career

At IIM Calcutta, Vinayak opted out of the placement process. After completing the MBA course, with just 3 children in a small rented building and almost no financial resources, he started Parivaar for children from impoverished and destitute backgrounds in late 2003.^[2][3] At the end of 2004, Parivaar purchased its own land and developed its first campus: Parivaar Ashram. In 2011, Parivaar expanded to having separate campuses for boys and girls. As of December 2023 , there are more than 1900 resident children (girls and boys) at Parivaar, making it the largest and high-quality residential program for children from impoverished strata in West Bengal.^[8]

In 2016–17, Parivaar also started working in Madhya Pradesh. It has started 679 Nutritional Meals cum Education centers for children in selected impoverished tribal and rural pockets called ‘Sri Ramakrishna Vivekananda Seva Kutir’ in 15 districts serving more than 40,000 children.^[9] Parivaar also runs 2 residential schools and 2 hostels in the districts of Dewas, Sehore and Mandla of Madhya Pradesh. 1250 boys and girls from different tribal geographies of the state are residing in these campuses.^[10] Apart from these, Parivaar also runs a large number of free 24*7 ambulances^[11] across 24 districts and several mobile health clinics^[12] in 7 tribal pockets of Madhya Pradesh, under which more than 1 million patients have been served till December 2023. Under its Vision Restoration Program, Parivaar has organized more than 3800 camps in 30 months in collaboration with several eye hospitals under which more than 5 lakh patients have been served and 56 thousand free eye surgeries have been performed.^[13]

Vinayak with children at Parivaar

Awards and honors

• National Award for Child Welfare 2011 presented by the President of India at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.^[3][7]
• Sanskriti Award, India's premier award for young achievers in 2011 from the Former President of India Dr A. P. J. Abdul Kalam.^{[3][7][14][15]}
• The First 'Madhya Pradesh Gaurav Samman' in the category of Health and Nutrition was presented by the Hon'ble Governor and Chief Minister of the state in November, 2022.^[16][17][18]
• CNN-IBN’s Young Indian Leader of the Year Award 2012.^[3][19]
• IIM Calcutta’s Distinguished Alumnus Award (1 of 9 recipients out of 8000 alumni).^[3][7][20]
• IIT Kharagpur’s ‘Distinguished Alumnus Award’ (youngest recipient in the history of the award) awarded in 2014.
• Swami Ranganathananda Memorial Humanitarian Award 2014 presented at the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture Calcutta.^[21]
• Swami Rama Humanitarian Award 2015 presented by Hon. Chief Minister of Uttarakhand.
• Vivekananda Seva Samman 2015 presented by Hon. Governor, West Bengal.
• Bhaorao Deoras Seva Samman 2015 presented at Lucknow by Hon Governor, Uttar Pradesh.
• Telegraph ‘Special Honour’ conferred by Telegraph Education Foundation Calcutta in 2014.^[22][23]

References

External links

• Parivaar Website
• Vinayak Lohani on Twitter