Beyond the Hunger: Dhamlesh’s Initiative in Building Change

“ Yeh to aisa hua ki bhook lag rahi hai, khana khilaya, bhook khatam, humara kaam khatam.”

“It happened that someone was hungry, we fed them, the hunger ended, and our work was done.”

That’s how Dhamlesh describes the moment he realized that merely helping people wasn’t enough. He initially started helping people on his own, and with the support of his family, he founded his organization Hrtenju (which means “well-being of all”). For several years, his organization worked to deliver government schemes to the villages in Tumsar block of Bhandara district in Maharashtra. It began with a simple idea: start somewhere. Their first challenge was bridging the gap between online forms and people’s access to them. When the government announced a loan waiver scheme, most farmers had no idea how to fill the forms. Hrtenju set up temporary camps in fifteen villages, guided farmers through the digital process, and often waited for hours as servers crashed. The following year, they expanded their work to help women apply for Ujjwala gas connections, ensured that these connections actually reached their homes, and assisted elderly women in receiving pensions directly, sparing them long and exhausting journeys. Month after month, village after village, they worked tirelessly on these interventions.

Over time, however, Dhamlesh began to feel a quiet restlessness beneath the success. We were ending someone’s hunger for a moment, but the hunger always returned. The deeper work had not begun, he reflects. This search led him to the lives of migrant sugarcane workers in adjoining regions. Surveys revealed a heartbreaking reality: the children of these workers rarely completed school. They attended for two or three months, dropped out, and lost all continuity in their education once their families returned home. 

Dhamlesh, in order to break this chain, did something different. 

He decided to take the school to the children, hiring local teachers and establishing follow-up mechanisms to ensure continuity. The initiative also addressed women’s health and child nutrition, creating a holistic approach to community welfare. For five years now, these bridge schools have been running, keeping alive the belief that persistent, context-sensitive interventions matter more than temporary fixes.

Dhamlesh’s drive to help others traces back to his childhood. He remembered his father and brother always helping people to resolve disputes. Later, when he was doing his masters in Social Work, he became familiar with Ambedkar and Phule’s ideas, which reshaped his understanding of social work. He realized that long-term solutions required building self-sufficiency within communities. To strengthen his skills, he underwent the “Training of Trainers” program with Samvidhan Pracharak, a teaching programme in collaboration with We, The People Abhiyan. It further enriched his knowledge and methods. 

As a result, currently while working with CORO India, Dhamlesh has taken his vision further into sustainable leadership. Working in tribal regions, he focuses on building awareness of the Forest Rights Act and helping communities understand that they can claim ownership of forest produce, generate livelihoods, and resist migration caused by lack of rights. “The community is doing everything. We are only showing the road, supporting, and guiding. You must do the rest yourself”, he emphasizes. 

From filling forms to catalyzing leadership, Dhamlesh’s journey revolves around the hunger that never truly ends. The hunger for justice, for empowerment, for systemic change - it drives his every decision. From sustaining schools despite financial hurdles to initiating Gram Sabhas and mobilizing women to participate in governance, he stretches his efforts as wide as possible. His dedication has also been recognized formally; he recently received the Taluka-Level District Award from the Sports Department for his outstanding service in the social sector.

“Hum jeeye to samvidhan ke muddo pe hi jeeye” , “We should live guided by the principles of the Constitution,” he says.  He continues to learn, and his journey shows no signs of stopping.

The above story has been written and published with the explicit consent of the individual involved. All facts presented are based on WTPA's direct interaction with the individual, ensuring accuracy and integrity in our reporting.