Mr. Mritunjay Tiwary
Area of Intervention
Mritunjay embarked on this venture with a profound conviction that innovative eye healthcare can combat poverty, promote gender equality, and drive societal transformation in India’s low-income states.
About
With a Commerce background and 12 years of marketing experience, Mr. Mritunjay serves as the Founder & Head of Projects at Akhand Jyoti Eye Hospital in Mastichak, Bihar. This institution has risen to become one of India’s top five eye hospitals. Mritunjay embarked on this venture with a profound conviction that innovative eye healthcare can combat poverty, promote gender equality, and drive societal transformation in India’s low-income states.
The hospital provides comprehensive world-class eye care services, encompassing various sub-specialties, and conducts more than 65,000 surgeries annually. Remarkably, 80% of these surgeries are performed free of charge, significantly impacting the lives of one million people each year.
Akhand Jyoti Eye Hospitals, situated in the remote village of Mastichak, Bihar, face the challenge of operating in an area with minimal supporting infrastructure. The driving force behind this initiative is the transformative journey from football to eye care, earning Mritunjay recognition with the prestigious Reliance – CNN IBN REAL HEROES AWARD in 2010.
His source of inspiration is his Guru, Pandit Shriram Sharma Acharya, the visionary founder of Gayatri Pariwar, who identified his life’s purpose in Bihar. Mritunjay embarked on this mission with a primary objective: to combat curable blindness in Bihar, one of India’s most underdeveloped states, where pervasive poverty, widespread illiteracy, and inadequate infrastructure posed formidable challenges.
In addition to his efforts in eye care, he is actively involved in providing equal opportunities to girls from rural Bihar. Through a unique talent development program at the eye hospital, he aims to address issues like child marriage and gender inequality by offering alternative paths for girls.
To date, 180 girls have reclaimed their lives through this initiative, with 30 new additions annually. Mritunjay’s aspiration is to expand the annual impact of his work by restoring the sight of 200,000 rural poor individuals, providing treatment to 2 million people, and empowering 300 girls to reclaim their lives every year.
Despite his dedication to this noble cause, Mritunjay manages to maintain a livelihood by overseeing six franchise businesses for the past 25 years. He allocates five days each month to his family and their business in Kolkata, with limited personal ambitions, driven by his unwavering passion to bring about societal change in India’s most impoverished regions. In his spare time, he pursues his interests in football and wildlife photography.
