Vinayak Lohani
Vinayak Lohani (,) is the founder of "Parivaar", a humanitarian institution based in West Bengal. He, inspired by the spiritual and humanistic ideals of Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda, decided to devote his entire life to serving the ‘Divine in Man’ as taught by Swami Vivekananda. Background, early life and education. Vinayak Lohani was born in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh and did his schooling there. His family roots are from Almora district of Kumaon region in Uttarakhand, and their family surname was originally Upadhyaya, until a few generations back an ancestor took Lohumi (then changed to Lohani) as a title . His father served in the MP Cadre of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS). He went to IIT Kharagpur to do his B.Tech and thereafter worked for Infosys for a year. In 2001, he joined IIM Calcutta to do his MBA. Career. At IIM Calcutta, Vinayak opted out of the placement process. After completing the MBA course, with just 3 children in a small rented building and almost no financial resources, he started Parivaar for children from impoverished and destitute backgrounds in late 2003. At the end of 2004, Parivaar purchased its own land and developed its first campus: Parivaar Ashram . In 2011, Parivaar expanded to having separate campuses for boys and girls. As of October 2018, there are more than 2000 resident children (girls and boys) at Parivaar, making it the largest and high-quality residential program for children from impoverished strata in West Bengal. In 2016–17, Parivaar also started working in Madhya Pradesh. It has started 248 Day Boarding (Meal cum Education centers) for children in selected impoverished tribal and rural pockets called ‘Sri Ramakrishna Vivekananda Seva Kutir’ in Dewas, Sehore, and Mandla districts. At these Kutirs more than 25000 children are getting nutritious meals (breakfast and dinner) along  with Strongly Supplementary education and Life-Skills over morning and evening shifts.