Thirty years of hope on the streets of Chennai
September 2025

“We never thought that Karunalaya would see thirty years, or that we would be able to support so many children, women and communities living on the streets. It’s been fulfilling, looking back on both our achievements and challenges with hope.

Support and friendship with Amos has strengthened our work and our commitment for the poorest of the poor. We’re entering our 31st year with new energy and resolve, to re-dedicate ourselves to the poor, powerless and the forgotten for decades to come — until our vision is achieved.” Paul Sunder Singh, Karunalaya

This week we have been busy celebrating 40 years of Amos and we were delighted to be joined by Paul Sunder Singh, founder of Karunalaya, and his wife Bakiyam. And whilst we were celebrating 40 years of doing hope they’ve been visiting supporters and celebrating 30 years of Karunalaya. 

Paul Sunder Singh, a softly-spoken lawyer with a doctorate in criminology focussing on child abuse prevention, founded Karunalaya in 1995 in response to the rampant child labour and high numbers of children living on the streets of Chennai city. 

The softly-spoken lawyer: Paul Sunder Singh, Founder of Karunlaya in Chennai, India
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Since then, Karunalaya’s work has evolved into a truly holistic organisation: 

• working with children met at the railways, supporting them with accommodation, therapeutic support and — where safe — family reintegration 

• community development work in Chennai’s pavement-dwelling communities, working with families, addressing violence and child marriage, counselling couples and training women

• ensuring all children get the education they are entitled to, including those living on the streets, and those who have missed out on years of education due to child labour 

• offering marginalised young people the opportunities that all children deserve, such as play, sports, scouting and dance — challenging stigma and ensuring girls’ participation 

Their journey has been full of joys, challenges, successes and tragedies. They have responded to moments of catastrophe in their community, from supporting thousands after the 2004 tsunami which hit the fishing community of Chennai, to feeding over 18,000 during the Covid-19 pandemic.

They’ve seen their young people lifting the Champion’s trophy as winners of the Street Child Cricket World Cup at Lords Cricket Ground, and they have amplified the voices of children living on the streets around the world. Karunalaya transforms lives one child at a time, seeing children from the streets go on to study masters degrees and become engineers; children like Senthil and Usha.

Champions: Team India winning the Street Child Cricket World Cup at Lord's Cricket Ground in 2019. Photograph courtesy of Street Child United.
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Senthil & Usha

Senthil is from the pavement dwelling community of Barracks Street where Karunalaya runs supplementary classes which Senthil attended throughout his childhood. This allowed him to not only finish his schooling but to go on to university and become an engineer.

He still lives on Barracks Street, is now one of the leaders in their Pavement Dwellers’ Rights Association and in his spare time gives back what he was given, teaching at Karunalaya’s supplementary classes. 

Pavement-dwelling: Barracks Street Chennai, India.
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Usha was also born and grew up on Barracks Street. She travelled with Karunalaya when she was 18 to represent India at the Street Child Games in 2016 in Brazil, where she spoke about the rights of children on the streets including the need to secure a legal identity. On her return she continued with her studies, supported by Karunalaya, and gained a Masters in Mathematics — all while studying by streetlights on the pavement at night. She now has a job, is married and living in her own home with her family. 

Whilst here, Paul and Bakiyam wanted to share some of their impact with us over the past 30 years; and whilst numbers can never tell the whole story, the sheer scale of transformation fills us with hope. 

Some of their highlights of 30 years of work: 

• 5,485 children have stayed in Karunalaya’s accommodation — meaning they have had a safe place to stay in a community of care and friendship, having access to  medical care, education and counselling.

• Over 2,000 people, with Karunalaya’s help, have been able to secure vital identity documents, like birth certificates and family cards. This has meant that they are now able to claim their entitlements, register to vote and ensure their children can also have IDs.

• Over 5,700 children on the streets have been able to access education through supplementary classes — receiving after-school support 5 days a week, meaning they are able to keep up with their peers at school, despite all the challenges they face. 

• Alongside the supplementary classes nearly 1,600 pavement-dwelling families — around 8,000 individuals — have received community education, training and counselling. 

• They have provided 17,500 children with education materials, enabling them to continue going to school — this includes books, school bags, uniforms and essential materials, so they don’t miss out on anything or feel different from other children at school.

• They have supported 587 young people from the streets to go on to higher education — undergraduate level or above. The magnitude of even one young person gaining their Bachelors or Masters’ degree whilst still sleeping on the pavement cannot be underestimated — let alone nearly six hundred. 

• They have supported women from the pavement-dwelling communities to form 361 self-help groups, which today have 7,220 members. Women save together and take part in entrepreneurship activities to get out of debt. 

Karunalaya Is Everything

It has been an honour to partner with Paul and Karunalaya for the last 13 years. We have learnt so much from them, especially from their approach to community development and painstaking dedication to the marginalised — we look forward to many more years of collaboration.

To mark thirty years, we have made a new film about Karunalaya called ‘Karunalaya Is Everything’ which you can watch here.

If you would like to support Karunalaya’s work, please click here to make a one-off donation or become a regular supporter.