“I have tears when I see underprivileged people on road.”
– Kallol Ghosh
Kallol’s childhood days
Kallol Ghosh was born on 7th December 1965 and belonged to a very middle-class family where his father was a simple Central Government employee and his mother was a housewife. He never tasted luxury in his childhood but had a wonderful youth day with amazing friends and playing on the street. He was in a very strict school ‘Ramkrishna Sarada Mission’ which made him extremely disciplined in life. During his school days, mid-day meal at school was compulsory. He didn’t like milk and during that time if a kid does not eat anything then he or she has to bring an application from his parents about it. Kallol’s parents sent an application to school that he does not like milk and does not want to have it. But he and his gang were so notorious that they used to steal milk and biscuits from inventory just for fun.
Kallol decided to serve neglected people from his adolescent time
In the year 1982 when Kallol was in class 10, he used to play with his friends near a railway station in his area. While playing he has noticed many people and kids who are basically slum dwellers. He didn’t know much about them other than the fact these people stay at the station and barely get to eat anything. One day he found in a Newspaper that 13 children had been run over by a train, and they belonged to the same station as his place. He went to see them and was shocked to see the common faces that he sees every day. He thought on his own why do these kids not go to school. He came back home and asked his dad about it. His dad told him that these kids are the poorest of the poor and hence do not have money for education. After class 10, in the gap of three months for the new session, Kallol and his friends educated the footpath dwellers. It was completely out of love. During that time, he decided that once he grows up he will stand beside these kids by providing them with education and all other necessities. Working for society became his dream after that.
Kallol’s first job as a social activists
In the year 1987 after graduation Kallol was appointed by ‘Nehru Yuva Kendra’ for the National Youth Program which was under the Ministry of Human Resources as a National Service Volunteer. Here he motivated the slum dwellers to go to school. It is a very common fact that the footpath dwellers or any society people do not take enough care of the public tube well or lights. They use it and do not give attention to it. It was the duty of Kallol to teach them how to take care of these public properties and how to own it. During this time, he was asked to appear for the United Nations (UN) volunteer exam. He appeared for the exam and cleared it. He started working with the UN as a Volunteer and his first posting was in Nepal. After that, he got postings in places like Thailand and then to Murshidabad in West Bengal. He worked with the UN for 6 and a half years.
Kallol’s own organization for distressed
In the year 1986 Kallol registered his organization with the name ‘Institute for Distressed’. Later he changed the name to ‘Organization for Friends, Energies, and Resources’ (OFFER). He always believes that to do social work and to volunteer that work, it is very important that you make people your friend, you need enough energy to do the work, and it is very important that you have enough resources to do that work. Hence, he came up with the new name OFFER.
In the year 1998, the Calcutta Corporation passed a tender to make night shelters for the footpath dwellers after Kallol initiated the process. One day he met a 14-year-old girl at Dumdum station. They were known to each other because Kallol has worked for them. The girl came to him and told him that at night the hawkers, drunk people, and the RPF disturb women and girls a lot. During that time Kallol decided to help them and applied for the tender of Night Shelter for them. He appointed many social securities who used to guard women at night outside the shelter. After a few days, he wrote a letter to British Airways about them, and so that they can help these dwellers. The British Airway replied to him saying to document these people in a short film. Kallol and his team crowdfunded that short film of 9 minutes duration and made the movie. After the movie was made British Airway ( BA Runners) kept the film as an in-flight documentary. The British Airways crew used to collect coins from the passengers. After a few months, they called him to London and gave him a cheque for 35 lakhs. With that money, he helped the slum dwellers and bought a building under the name of OFFER, and named it ‘Apnaghar’ which in English means ‘My Own Home’.
During that time the ‘Banyan Trust’ in UK which works for special kids got in touch with him. They found that Kolkata has many special kids who are orphans, and they are looking for an organization that could take care of them. That’s how Kallol started “Apnajan’ which means ‘The Near and Dear once’.
In the year 2000, he got a call from Laketown (North Kolkata) police that a new born baby has been found on the street. He went there and found that the baby is a maximum of 2 days old. He informed the police that his organisation does not have the infrastructure to take care of new born babies. He took the baby to a nearby hospital and got to know that the kid was born in the same hospital. After a few tests, they got to know that the kid is HIV positive. He kept the kid with him, opened a home for HIV Positive kids, and named it ‘Anandaghar’ which means ‘Happy Home’. After two months he rescued 2 more kids with HIV Positive. Now he has a total of 473 kids in three homes.
Struggles during that time
When he had 15-16 HIV-affected kids at his home, he sent them to a school for educating them. The neighbours of the school and the guardians started agitation because they believed HIV is contagious and the kids are cursed. They do not want their kids to study together. They boycotted Kallol and attacked him. The Times of India, NDTV, and Hindustan Times helped him a lot during that time. They made news about it, and they intervened in the matter. They trained the entire village and the villagers about HIV. Now, everything is perfectly okay and they celebrate Durga Puja together. . Due to outstanding contribution to the society Kallol selected Senior Ashoka fellow in 2008 and awarded Honorary Doctorate by the President of Italy in the same year.
Celebrities association with the kids
In 2010 during World’s Aids Day (1st December), Kallol campaigned for a program ‘Gift me a sky’, where 40 kids from his home with 40 celebrities from Kolkata flew together to Siliguri. That was the first flight experience for the kids. A cultural program happened in Siliguri, and after that, the celebrities came back, and Kallol took the kids to Darjeeling for vacation.
The amazing experience for the kids has been the interaction with Virat Kohli. In 2019, Kallol received a call from Star Sports. They were planning for a program in which Virat Kohli will visit a home in Kolkata. They planned to visit some other home. They asked for Kallol’s help. But, after discussing with Kallol they changed the plan and thought of giving a surprise to the kids. On 19th November 2019 Virat Kohli came to ‘Anandaghar’ as Santa Claus. He gave the kids lots of gifts. The kids had no idea about who he is. After giving the gifts, Virat asked them about their favourite hero, cricketer, etc. all the kids together told that Virat is their best cricketer. Virat asked them why not ask Santa to bring Virat to them. All were excited and then Virat removed his dress and Santa get up. The kids were surprised and more than happy to see him. Before coming to the home, Virat told them that he will spend half an hour there, but he stayed there for almost 8 hours discussing probable works with Kallol and playing with the kids. He had lunch with the kids as well. The program was telecasted on Star Sports on 25th December 2019.
All about Café Positive
In the year 2006, Kallol went to Munich for work. One of his friends took him to a café where the staff of the entire café was HIV affected. Thus, Kallol thought of doing the same in his own city once his kids turned 18. In 2018 he started ‘Café Positive’ with his young adults. No one was giving a place to him, and he started the café in a garage. Kallol thought of an innovative idea and made a short film with them. He uploaded that film in ‘Milaap’ and received 16.5 lakhs from this crowd funding platform. With that money, he took a new place for the café, and now it is running successfully. Kallol has a plan of opening 6 cafes in the metro city airports on 15th August 2022. The planning and process have already started.
His plan for the coming 5 years
Philanthropic work is not Kallol’s profession. He does it out of passion. He has a small diagnostic centre that his wife takes care of, and his family runs out of it. Kallol contributes his entire time to this NGO. He has an expense of around 15 lakhs per month for running these NGOs along with 86 staff payments there. He is now trying to identify a new generation that will do such social work and will take care of the organization, which will help him to find donations as well. Very recently he built 3 storied building where he will open a hospital only for the HIV-affected kids. The HIV-affected kids are not treated well in normal hospitals. They have very less immunity power and hence need extra care. He will open such a hospital where the kids will be treated free of cost as many times as they need treatment. Since during that time the kids will miss their school, so he will appoint a few tutors as well who will help the kids with their studies. This is his plan for the coming 5 years.
His life’s motto
His only motto in life is to stay beside underprivileged & marginalised people. He believes in helping people. He always says that a person can stay good if society is positive. To make society good, it is the responsibility of people to take care of underprivileged people and kids.
His advice to all
It is very important to educate oneself about HIV. HIV does not happen only with the unprotected conjugal relationship. But if the same syringe is used in an injection for several patients it can also lead to HIV. HIV is not at all contagious, and hence please don’t scare people unnecessarily. It is wrong to demean the HIV-affected kids, as they have no role in it. It is not right to demean the HIV-affected patients also. They have every right to live a normal life like all of us. It is not possible to differentiate them, hence when you know that a certain person is HIV-affected please don’t disrespect them. Try to help them to have a smile and live a happy life.
