Sankurathri Chandra Sekhar

Sankurathri Chandrasekhar is the managing trustee of the Sankurathri Foundation, which runs schools and eye hospitals for poor families around Kakinada. He was named for the Padma Shri in 2023 in the field of social work, from Andhra Pradesh ^[1].

A scientist in Canada

Chandrasekhar was born on 20 November 1943 ^[2]. He took an MSc in zoology at Andhra University, an MS in biology at Memorial University of Newfoundland and a PhD at the University of Alberta, and worked in Canada for 13 years ^[2].

Out of tragedy

His wife and two children were killed when Air India Flight 182 was destroyed by an explosion off the coast of Ireland on 23 June 1985 ^[2]. In their memory he set up the Sankurathri Foundation, and in 1988 he returned to India and settled in Kakinada to run its work ^[2]. The foundation focuses on children’s education, eye care and relief after natural disasters ^[2].

Its school, Sarada Vidyalayam, and other projects have educated more than 5,000 rural students, and its Srikiran Institute of Ophthalmology has provided eye care to more than 37 lakh people and carried out more than 3,25,000 operations ^[2]. The Andhra Pradesh government named it the best NGO for cataract surgeries in 2002 and 2003 ^[2].

Recognition

CNN named him a CNN Hero in 2008, and he was the first Indian to be nominated ^[2]. Memorial University of Newfoundland gave him an honorary Doctor of Laws in 2012, and in 2016 the Canadian Ophthalmological Society honoured him for providing affordable, quality eye care to underserved people ^[2].