The Better India · 3 hours ago

From Slum Survivor to Building Ladli Foundation | Devendra Kumar's Story

Abandoned at two in a Delhi slum with his newborn sister, Devendra Kumar learned survival before safety, working as a child laborer in a world where "children in such conditions are easy targets." The fight to protect his sister from child marriage became the blueprint for something larger: Ladli Foundation, a grassroots movement that has now reached 2.7 million lives by addressing what mainstream systems overlook - computer labs in schools where children had never touched a keyboard, dignified washrooms for girls, pathways out of early marriage. What distinguishes his work is not scale alone but philosophy: he insists that real change requires not charity but responsibility, calling for skilled volunteers who understand that "if every home takes responsibility for one marginalized girl, a revolution can happen." In Kamini, once a beneficiary facing the end of her education, now a trustee at 26, the foundation reveals its deepest truth - that pain can become not just purpose, but a bridge others can walk across toward their own transformation.