Rahul Verma (social Worker)

Rahul Verma (social Worker) Biography

Rahul Verma is a social worker who founded Uday Foundation, an NGO named after his son who was born with multiple congenital defects. Rahul spearheaded the movements against junk food which badly affects kids and present generation. Uday Foundation is based in Delhi which works on health, support and dignity to homeless and disaster relief. The Foundation has received a NGO Leadership & Excellence Awards 2015 by ABP News. It runs a free medical clinic to treat underprivileged patients, and also provides free medicines to critically ill children. Quite interestingly, the organization also runs storytelling sessions for children in hospital.

Mr. Verma is best known for his stand against junk food in India, where people are more likely to develop diabetes from weight gain than people in other regions. He promotes homemade healthy food and often distributes healthy food to underprivileged kids, hospitals etc. Rahul Verma’s son was born gravely ill with digestive problems. On the regular visits, doctors warned about the bad effects of junk food on kids. His child was born with multiple congenital defects.

One day he noticed a girl at his doctor’s clinic who had gotten fat by compulsively eating potato chips. He got stuck with the fact that his son was born with problems, while healthy kids damaging themselves through unhealthy food habits. He decided he had to do something. He had no legal training. He sat late into the nights with his wife, Tullika, drafting a petition in their tiny apartment. He filed the public interest lawsuit in the Delhi High Court in 2010, seeking a ban on the sale of junk food and soft drinks in and around schools across India.

Published: November 23, 2018

Updated: November 23, 2018