Founder of Global Network for Equality (GNE) and aims to reconstruct the lives of children of crime victims in India and to eliminate their social stigma. He became a lawyer to be more effective in his work and be able to enter prisons with less bureaucratic hurdles. Today GNE supports more than 564 children by way of imparting higher education, monthly livelihood support. He works closely with prisoners to improve their lives and safeguarding the wellbeing of children who deprived of proper parental care. Here is the summary of the conversation we had with Raja:
- Crime is a behavioral deviation. I wanted to meet people who have been impacted due to crime.
- When a person kills his/her spouse, children loose both their parents.
- I saw those children as children. If I am not doing anything, who else will do. This was my motivation.
- My challenges were many: I had difficulty to get a rental house to start with. The jail authorities put forward lots of restrictions in the beginning. The inmates were not ready to trust me, when I went to speak with them.
- It is important to have a clear strategy, especially when we are working on a challenging project or initiative.
- Prison authorities recognised my effort. There were no suicides. People were more peaceful when I started to counsel them.
- Break the cycle, children are innocent. When we help their children, the prisoners reform. They behave better which may result in their term to be reduced.
- We can build a strong children’s community. We need to restore humanity.
- My parents were concerned initially. Once they visited the prison and saw the prisoners expressing their gratitude, they understood the impact of my work. They were happy.
- My spouse supports me by taking care of my family when I need to spend time on GNE.
- My dream is to have a knowledge centre, where any child can come, stay and explore their area of interest.
- Support the children. When we ignore them, we are indirectly making them closer to doing crimes.
