Kushal Raj Chakravorty, a former IKEA executive with an engineering degree from BIT Mesra and an MBA from IIM Lucknow, founded the Lotus Petal Foundation after encountering children without winter clothing at a bus stop in Gurugram in November 2011. He traced them to a temple-based school serving 250 students and began by providing shoes, socks, and winter wear.
Recognising that material aid alone would not keep children in school, Chakravorty designed a five-year fast-track programme enabling older students to complete education up to Class 12 alongside vocational training, communication skills, and digital literacy. In April 2013, he launched the programme in a single rented room in a Gurugram shopping arcade with six students, using personal savings and a loan of approximately Rs 40 lakh.
The first batch cleared CBSE board examinations by 2016, prompting Chakravorty to resign from IKEA in September 2016 to lead the foundation full-time. With support from an IIM Lucknow batchmate, the organisation acquired land and built a campus in Gurugram that now serves around 1,200 students from kindergarten through Class 12.
The campus provides two daily nutritious meals, healthcare, counselling, and life-skills training. A monthly fee of Rs 1,500 is charged to foster parental ownership, but the full amount is returned as a scholarship if parents stay engaged and children show positive progress. The foundation employs over 250 staff, including more than 120 teachers and counsellors, maintaining a 1:14 teacher-student ratio.
An independent KPMG assessment found that every Rs 1 invested generates Rs 3.64 in social value. Alumni include a student who joined at age 14 in Class 4 and became a doctor in 2024, as well as graduates now working in technical roles and teaching.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the foundation launched the Vidya Sahyog programme, using digital platforms to teach remotely. The initiative now supports over 275 schools across 16 states, reaching more than 10,000 students, and has delivered over 90,000 hours of teaching.
The foundation has also supported improvements in more than 50 government schools and trained over 2,600 young adults in vocational skills. Chakravorty says meeting alumni who now support their families and build stable futures remains his primary motivation.
Students and alumni describe the programme as transformative. One graduate, Ashish Kumar, who grew up in a single rented room with a carpenter father, says education changed his family's future; another, Chanchala, now teaches others after once hesitating to speak.
He Left His Global Career to Teach 6 Children. Today, 10000+ Learn Because of Him
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