Krishnavatar Sharma is the co-founder and project director of Aajeevika Bureau, a nonprofit organization serving migrant workers in Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Maharashtra.
Wiki/Biography
Krishnavatar Sharma is from Udaipur, Rajasthan. He did his schooling at Government High School, Sawai Madhopur. He graduated with B.Sc. (Biology) and LLB from Maharaja College, Jaipur, which is affiliated to the University of Rajasthan.
appearance
Eye color: Black
Hair color: Black
Profession
Karishnavatar started his career as a lawyer and worked in the District Court and Sessions Court in Jaipur and Sawai Madhopur. He then started working for the development department, serving the tribal areas of South Rajasthan. He has over 27 years of experience in development projects and project teams. He has established self-help projects, natural resource work, employment and legal aid projects and also overseen capacity building projects for development workers. It was during that time that he met Rajiv Khandelwal and they both decided to start an organization to help migrant workers in India live a better life. According to Rajiv,
It all started 15 years ago when we met a group of people from our area in Rajkot, Gujarat. We were shocked to see 15-20 people living in a small crowded room, some of them suffering from tuberculosis, with no signs of medical care, food or other necessities. It was shocking to see children, families who had worked for years with no money, no savings to make ends meet. The whole situation was disturbing. In the initial days, we tried to interact with these people as they lived in our village and we knew them, but their living conditions were an eye-opener for us.”
Krishnavatar Sharma and Rajiv Khandelwal
In 2005, Krishnavatar and Rajiv Khandelwal founded Aajeevika Bureau, a non-profit charitable organization based in Udaipur, Rajasthan, which provides legal aid, skills training, social security and livelihood support to migrant workers (from Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra).
Aajeevika Agency Logo
According to Krishnavatta,
It wasn’t easy in the beginning. We made a lot of progress, but it was hard and slow, and then we stabilized. When we started meeting migrant workers, we realized that there were so many of them and they traveled to other cities for work. Seeing this, we knew we had to have big goals and big plans. Another big difficulty was to contact the unions who were doing similar work, to let them know the severity of the situation and that these people’s lives needed attention, and that was the beginning of our journey.”
Facts/Trivia
- In 2010, Krishnavatar Sharma and Rajiv Khandelwal were the recipients of the India Social Entrepreneur Award, awarded by the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship in association with the Jubilant Bhartia Foundation.
Krishanavatar Sharma and Rajiv Khandelwal win 2010 Indian Social Entrepreneur Award
- He is also a member of the governing board of Gramin Siksh Kendra, an association established in 1996 to ensure quality education for children in the Sawai Madhopur district of Rajasthan.
- Krishnavatar is also a writer who has written for the NGO World Economic Forum and has helped conduct many surveys related to Indian migrant workers.
- In 2018, he was selected for the Harvard Kennedy School’s “Leadership for Systemic Change: Generating Social Impact at Scale” program at the Harvard Kennedy School (Harvard University’s School of Public Policy in Cambridge, Massachusetts).
- In October 2020, Krishnavatar and Rajiv Khandelwal appeared on the Karamveer Special of the game show Kaun Banega Crorepati hosted by Amitabh Bachchan.
Krishanavatar Sharma and Rajiv Khandelwal in KBC Karamveer Special
Categories: Biography
Source: HIS Education