Dr Virendra Agarwal is a medical professional with expertise in Yoga, Naturopathy and Physiotherapy. He works whole-heartedly for the poor and needy via his non-profit organisation based in Bharatpur.

Dr Virendra Agarwal belongs to Bharatpur, Rajasthan. He works as the Secretary of the ten-year-old non-profit organisation, Swasthya Mandir Sansthan. Through the organisation, Dr Virendra aims to provide alternative medical treatment and social service to the poor, needy, old, and sick.

Dr Virendra informs us that currently, there are three ongoing projects of the organisation. The first one targets children living in the slums and provides them with food, clothing, shoes, education, and rations. The children of age group four to fourteen who are rag pickers or beggars are the project’s focus. The second one is called ‘Mahila Ajeevika’ that focuses on women, who are willing to work but have no opportunities. So, the organisation provides skill development in tailoring, beauty parlour work, dance, snack making, soap making, honey-bee keeping etc., and then introduces them to work opportunities. The third project focuses on the old and senior citizens and is known as the ‘Senior Citizen Day Care Centre’. Services like Yoga, Physiotherapy, Naturopathy, motivational sessions, meditation etc., are provided to the old to give them a healthy body and mind to live happily.

Dr Virendra proudly states that the organisation takes no funding from the government and thrives on local donations, CSR activities etc. The physiotherapy, naturopathy, and Ayurveda services are offered at a very low cost at the organisation by highly qualified and trained doctors. The organisation is based out of Bharatpur and plans to expand to many places in future.

The Swasthya Mandir Sansthan was established in 2010 by Dr Virendra, who was inspired to run an NGO for providing yoga and naturopathy services to the poor. He started in a rented room with little funds. Gradually, Ayurveda and Physiotherapy were included in their services. Then, social works like education for the poor kids and women also became a part of the organisation. Thus, gradually the organisation helped and formed a community of more than ten thousand beneficiaries.

Dr Virendra is a DNYS and NDDY in Yoga and Naturopathy from Rajasthan University. Moreover, he has done Physiotherapy training from New Delhi. However, along with medical treatment, the organisation provides employment and employment-related skill development training.

Talking about the Covid times Dr Virendra says that his organisation took it as an opportunity and employed thirteen people to do the social work. The organisation served the people by donating a month’s ration to more than fourteen hundred families. This initiative of theirs was appreciated and supported by the District Collector. They also started a sanitisation program and sanitised almost four thousand and five hundred homes. Furthermore, they provided nine thousand and six hundred Ayurvedic Kadha packets to boost immunity.  They provided free of cost masks and collected  a total donation of three lakhs for the same. Moreover, the organisation provided food, clothing, and shoes to almost seven thousand workers migrating on foot during the lockdowns.

Dr Virendra states that social work requires tremendous patience during the initial stages. Problems of funding, people’s trust, identifying the right people to help, and segregating the do’s and don’ts of social help are some of the issues faced by the newcomers. However, once these are passed with resilience, the organisation gets a name and successfully thrives on people’s trust and donations.

Dr Virendra believes that Leadership develops with experience. He believes that when a person starts to work with a team he starts understanding the team members, their needs and expectations, developing leadership naturally. If a person works with zeal and responsibility, their team listens to them keenly.

Dr Virendra advises the social service aspirants to start from a basic level with very little or no money. He believes that charity work can be anything like educating the nearby poor kids, training the women on some skills, small initiatives to keep the environment clean, propagating health awareness, providing food to the poor, etc. He claims that social service gives immense peace and satisfaction and helps relieve stress and worries. Helping humans, animals, or the environment in any way is a form of social service in his opinion.

Dr Virendra lives with his mother, wife, and a thirteen-year-old child. All his family members help him with his organisation work. His wife teaches the kids and his mother looks after the meals and rations. He manages his livelihood through the organisation and serves the organisation in return. Dr Virendra is a social servant by heart and considers it his hobby, passion, interest, and profession. He finds immense joy, satisfaction, energy, and inspiration by serving society.

Dr Virendra says he is an optimist who takes everything positively. Handling situations with positivity and a sense of acceptance is his life mantra. He loves reading Shri Shri Ravi Shankar and Acharya Rajneesh’s books and follows their ideologies in life. Meditation and other mind strengthening activities are a part of the organisation’s daily routine. He motivates everyone to meditate daily to seek peace and mental strength.

Dr Virendra is well aware that many NGOs today have just become money-making organisations who do little for the poor. That’s why he suggests avoiding government funding and relying upon local donations. He feels donations build trust by involving the donor emotionally, mentally, physically, and financially in the projects.