Gyanendra Purohit – StarsUnfolded

Some Lesser Known Facts About Gyanendra Purohit 

• Gyanendra Purohit is an Indian advocate and activist. He is the co-founder of Anand Service Society, a non-government organization working for deaf and impaired people in India.

• He was pursuing chartered accountancy before he was an advocate. In 1997, when his brother, Anand, a deaf and mute, died in a train accident, he decided to dedicate his life to the impaired people.

• In 2000, Gyanendra and his wife, Monica, founded Anand Service Society, an organization helping the deaf and impaired with their education, training, and employment assistance. The organization is centred in Indore and rural and tribal areas of Madhya Pradesh like Dhar and Alirajpur (India’s most illiterate districts).
  

  Logo of Anand Service Society

• With the organization as his base, he advocated to help many impaired people; he helped in providing deaf children with the access in normal schools; he helped in providing reservation (by state governments) to deaf and speech impaired on teacher post; he helped in providing reservation quota for deaf people in government ITI colleges and getting them admitted in them; he helped in making BERA (Brainstem-evoked response audiometry) testing compulsory in governments job.

• His father, Late Babulal Purohit, gave his retirement money to help Gyanendra in purchasing a piece of land for the NGO when the government denied to help him.

• In 2003, Gyanendra and Monica Purohit composed National Anthem in sign language and they became the first one to do so. The then Prime Minister of India Atal Bihari Vajpayee recognized the national anthem.

• In 2005, Gyanendra and Monica became the first ones to interpret the Bollywood blockbusters Sholey (1975), Gandhi (1982), Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. (2003), and Taare Zameen Par (2007).

• India’s first deaf and speech impaired friendly police station was initiated by Gyanendra and Monica Purohit at Tukoganj Police Station Indore with MP Police.

• Gyanendra and his wife have also trained Narmada Jhabua Gramin Bank employees in sign language. making the bank India’s first deaf-friendly bank.

• In 2015, Gyanendra and Monica were honoured in BBC’s production ‘Aaj Ki Raat Hai Zindagi,’ a talk show that aired on Star Plus and was hosted by Amitabh Bachchan.
  

  Gyanendra and Monica Purohit in Aaj Ki Raat Hai Zindagi

• In 2017, Gyanendra and Monica appeared as guests in ‘DSC Show,’ a talk show that aired on Zee Entertainment and was hosted by Dr Subhash Chandra.

• In the 2018 state assembly elections of Madhya Pradesh, Gyanendra and Monica Purohit helped the deaf-mute Sudeep Shukla to contest election from Satna, MP. The couple helped Shukla in delivering his election speech. Sudeep Shukla is the first MLA candidate who is deaf and mute.
  

  Sudeep Shukla

• In February 2020, Anand Service Society’s work was featured in ‘Indian Social Responsibility Network (ISRN) Stories – Volume 4 – propounded by Pt. Deendayal Upadhaya’ by Ministry of Culture, Government of India.

• During lockdown in coronavirus pandemic in India, Anand Service Society rescued more than 500 impaired people with the help of video call helpline (launched nationally) in sign language. The most famous case being rescuing of a deaf girl, who was going to commit suicide, through an online video call counselling that went to 14 hours.

• In 2020, Gyanendra and his wife made an appearance in the Karamveer Special of the game show Kaun Banega Crorepati, hosted by Amitabh Bachchan.
  

  Gyanendra and Monica Purohit in Kaun Banega Crorepati