Gurvinder Singh

Gurvinder Singh is the founder-president of the Bhai Kanhaiya Manav Sewa Trust in Sirsa, Haryana. He was named for the Padma Shri in 2024 in the field of social work, from Haryana ^[1].

After the accident

He was born on 4 January 1969, went to school in Sirsa and worked as a mechanic repairing farm machinery ^[2]. An accident left him paralysed, and doctors told him he would spend his life in a wheelchair ^[2].

In hospital he saw volunteers serving free milk and bread to patients and their families each day ^[2]. Moved by this, he started a free milk service for patients at Sirsa’s civil hospital and founded the trust ^[2].

The trust’s work

Since 2006 the trust has held 56 blood donation camps ^[2]. Its ambulances in Sirsa, Ellenabad and Rania have answered more than 10,800 calls for accident victims and women in labour since 2008 ^[2].

Since 2010 it has run the Bhai Kanhaiya Ashram for homeless and destitute children, women and older men, which has housed more than 400 people with disabilities, providing food, clothing and medical care free ^[2]. Some 380 residents have returned home after recovering ^[2]. The trust also runs a free school for about 250 homeless, orphaned and poor children, with transport, books, uniforms and meals included ^[2].

It also plants trees, gives saplings away free, has grown a one-acre forest, and runs water stalls in summer and a sewing centre ^[2].