Our Founder — D. Arul Raj
An autorickshaw driver in Chennai who decided that at least one person would be rescued from the streets every single day.
D. Arul Raj drives an autorickshaw in Chennai. He founded Karunai Ullangal Trust in 2017 — not from an office, but from the front seat of that auto. For about four hours each morning and four each evening he carries passengers, and those fares keep his own household running. The hours in between belong to somebody else entirely: the homeless, the elderly and the mentally ill people most of the city walks past without slowing down.
His turning point came during the 2015 Chennai floods. He had just lost his bank job, and the jobless months that followed were spent in flood-relief volunteering. When a stranded, starving family in Saidapet called for help, he carried food to them through the water — and discovered that hundreds more, street after street, were in exactly the same condition. That day reshaped his life.
He set himself one unrelenting goal: rescue at least one homeless person every single day. What began with one man and his auto has grown into a movement — more than 15,000 lives touched, over 9,000 elderly people rescued, and thousands reunited with families who had believed them lost for years.
Today, with a core team of 50 and more than 500 volunteers, the same daily promise continues across Tamil Nadu — one rescue, one meal, one restored life at a time.
The Movement He Started
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Lives Transformed
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Elderly Rescued
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Core Team
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Volunteers
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