Sevalaya Clinches Top Spot at National Social Impact Awards
Sevalaya, a registered charitable trust headquartered in Chennai, has won the SP Jain
Institute of Management and Research’s (SPJIMR) National Level Social Impact Award – 2024
as the top organisation in the country in providing Health, Nutrition, Water and Sanitation to
the underprivileged. A 36 year old NGO, Sevalaya serves the underprivileged in education,
skill development, orphanages, health, old age homes and rural development.
The award was the culmination of a 8 month process that involved applications from nearly
490 organisations including NGOs and CSR projects of leading brands. 54 finalists across 6
categories were invited to the grand finale on 5 December 2024 at Mumbai.
V Muralidharan, Founder and Managing Trustee, Sevalaya, received the award from Bezwada
Wilson, Co-founder at Safai Karmachari Andolan, Anil Paranjape, General Manager- India
Operations, Avalara and Dr Chandrika Parmar, Director, DoCC, SPJIMR.
Delivering the keynote address, Bezwada Wilson congratulated the finalists as pioneers who
have raised their voice against some form of injustice that they witnessed in their lives, in
their respective fields. He recalled how during his childhood, the realisation that his parents
were manual scavengers came as a rude shock. He started his organisation with the aim of
ending manual scavenging. He encouraged the younger generation to refuse to accept
injustices as the new normal and take up the fight against them as a worthy cause.
In his acceptance speech, Sevalaya Murali thanked the Awards Jury for choosing to award
Sevalaya. He spoke about how Sevalaya was founded on the principles of three great
personalities- Mahakavi Bharathiyar, Mahatma Gandhi and Swami Vivekananda, who wanted
to build an equitable society with education, nutrition, health and welfare accessible to all.
Founded in 1988, Sevalaya works in the fields of education, skill development, welfare of
destitute children and elders, rural development, healthcare and organic farming. With 43
centres spread across the 5 states of South India, Sevalaya’s activities are focused on the rural
and underprivileged communities, including the tribal communities.
In the area of health and hygiene, Sevalaya provides free high quality healthcare through its
hospitals, clinics, special medical camps and mobile medical vans. Laboratory tests, medicines
and physiotherapy services are also provided free of cost to the rural underprivileged
communities. Remote villages are provided with clean drinking water facilities and sanitation
facilities, thus creating open-defecation-free villages.
Sevalaya has also implemented environment-friendly projects like pond restoration, tree
planting and solar street lighting in various villages. In 36 years Sevalaya has positively
impacted more than 8 lakh lives. Sevalaya Murali recalled that Sevalaya had won the award
in the Education and Skill Development category in 2023 and remarked that the organisation
was on a hat-trick going into the next year.
The award includes a cash prize of Rupees One Lakh. The objective of the award is to provide
a platform for multi-stakeholder projects to showcase themselves and get recognised at the
national level.
