Krishnavatar Sharma is the co-founder and program director of Aajeevika Bureau, a non-profit organization that works with the migrant workers in Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Maharashtra.
Contents
Wiki/Biography
Krishnavatar Sharma is from Udaipur, Rajasthan. He did his schooling from Govt. High Secondary School in Sawai Madhopur. He graduated with a degree in BSc (Bio) and LLB from Maharaja College in Jaipur, affiliated to Rajasthan University.
Physical Appearance
Eye Color: Black
Hair Color: Black
Career
Karishnavatar started his career as a lawyer and worked at District and Session courts at Jaipur and Sawai Madhopur. He then began working for the development sector, where he worked for tribal regions of Southern Rajasthan. He has more than 27 years of experience in developing programs and program teams. He built self-help programmes, natural resources work, employment and legal aid programmes, and also oversaw capacity-building programmes of development workers. It was during those times that he met Rajiv Khandelwal, they both decided to start an organization to help the migrant workers of India live a better life. According to Rajiv,
It all started 15 years ago, when we saw our district’s group in Rajkot, Gujarat. We were shocked looking at 15-20 people living in a small, congested room, few of them were suffering from Tuberculosis, no signs of medical care, food or other essential things. It was shocking looking at children, the families who have been working for years, had no money, no savings to survive. The whole condition was disturbing. For the first few days we tried to interact with those people as they lived in our village and we knew them, but their living condition was an eye-opener for us.”
Krishnavatar Sharma with Rajiv Khandelwal
In 2005, Krishnavatar and Rajiv Khandelwal started Aajeevika Bureau, a non-profit and charitable organization, headquartered in Udaipur, Rajasthan, which helps migrant workers (of Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Maharashtra) by providing them with legal aid, skilling, social security, and livelihood support.
Logo of Aajeevika Bureau
According to Krishnavatar,
In the beginning, it was not easy. We have reached so far but the journey has been difficult, slow in progress, and then we garnered some stability. When we started meeting the migrant workers, we realized that they are in large numbers and travel to other cities for work. Looking at that, we knew we had to think big and on a large scale. Another big difficulty was to reach out to unions who do similar work, make them understand the seriousness of the condition so that they knew that these lives needed attention and that is how our journey started.”
Facts/Trivia
- In 2010, Krishnavatar Sharma and Rajiv Khandelwal became the winners of India’s Social Entrepreneur, presented by The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, in partnership with Jubilant Bhartia Foundation.
Krishanavatar Sharma and Rajiv Khandelwal as the Winner of India’s Social Entrepreneur 2010
- He is also a governing board member of Gramin Siksh Kendra, a society established in 1996 to ensure access to quality education for the children of the Sawai Madhopur region of Rajasthan.
- Krishnavatar is also a writer and has written articles for the NGO World Economic Forum and has helped in conducting many surveys related to migrant workers in India.
- In 2018, he was chosen for the ‘Leadership for System Change: Delivering Social Impact at Scale’ program at Harvard Kennedy School, the public policy school of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
- In October 2020, Krishnavatar and Rajiv Khandelwal appeared in the Karamveer Special of the game show Kaun Banega Crorepati, hosted by Amitabh Bachchan.
Krishanavatar Sharma and Rajiv Khandelwal in the Karamveer Special of KBC
