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Chandigarh-based social worker finds mention in PM’s Mann ki Baat
Kumar’s mention came when Modi was speaking about people’s initiative in providing cost-free help to the poor in their quest for knowledge and education.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday praised a Chandigarh-based social worker, Sandeep Kumar, for running a mobile library providing free books to poor children.
In his monthly radio programme Mann ki Baat, PM Modi said, “In Chandigarh, Sandeep Kumar who runs an NGO, has set up a mobile library in a minivan, through which, the poor children are given books to read free of cost.”
Kumar’s mention came when Modi was speaking about people’s initiative in providing cost-free help to the poor in their quest for knowledge and education.
Kumar, founder of NGO Open Eye Foundation, had started collecting books in 2016 from various places to help students who can not afford them. He at times would organise camps in schools.
During the lockdown, Kumar organised a small library in his minivan, filled with books and writing materials collected from various houses, and started visiting slums and colonies to help students in need. He also gave away masks and sanitary napkins along with study materials. The motto of his foundation is ‘education from trash’.
Kumar has collected about 40,000 books in the last three years and distributed almost 10,000 books to the children in the area during the lockdown.
